Court order is the first since the OPP assumed oversight of the Project Brazen 2 investigation, looking into potential “criminality” by the mayor and associates.
Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford faces the media during a news conference prior to the Big City Mayor's Meeting in Ottawa Feb. 26. Police took out a new search warrant in the Project Brazen 2 case. The warrant was filed in court Friday.
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Police have taken out a new search warrant in the Project Brazen 2 case connected to Mayor Rob Ford, the first court order since the Ontario Provincial Police assumed oversight of the year-long probe.
The warrant, filed in court Friday, is sealed. Unlike previous warrants, the Star was not able to determine what police are seeking. Previous warrants have related to a Toronto house, telephone records and access to data on an iPhone.
Police would not say what information the warrant, signed by a judge, will help them obtain. One possibility is that it is a further warrant related to the iCloud information connected to Ford’s friend and occasional driver Alexander “Sandro” Lisi, whose parents’ house was previously searched and whose phone was seized by the police.
There were close to 900 telephone calls, text messages and meetings between Lisi, an accused drug dealer, and Ford or members of his staff, according to a Star analysis of police documents already released.
The Star previously reported that detectives were in the process of obtaining Lisi-generated video and audio stored in iCloud, but that a further search warrant was needed. Lisi, who has referred to Ford as his “good friend,” is known for secretly recording people — including the mayor — using video and audio on his iPhone.
The sealing order on the warrant and the information used by police to obtain it before a judge states that all related information be kept “in a place to which the public has no access.” The Star is challenging this and will be in court March 19 to make arguments.
Project Brazen 2 is the special Toronto police unit led by Det.-Sgt. Gary Giroux, of the homicide squad. He has a team of officers that for almost a year has been probing criminal allegations related to Ford and others, a probe the mayor has dismissed as a waste of time and resources.
At the request of Police Chief Bill Blair, Giroux now reports to OPP Det.-Insp. Chris Nicholas, a seasoned senior officer who was the lead investigator on one of the Russell Williams murder cases from 2010.
Ford shrugged off suggestions this week that he would be charged one day. “Charged for what? What, an empty vodka bottle or urinating in the park? Which one, I’m not quite sure.” Ford was referring to surveillance police carried out last summer that caught him in a park with Lisi. Police also observed Lisi dropping off packages to Ford.
Lisi has a lengthy record of threatening violence to women and has been charged for drug possession numerous times, though all but one of the drug charges against him have been withdrawn over the years.
The Star and other media have made application in court to obtain the documents filed by police in support of Friday’s warrant, as well as a search warrant filed in court on Jan. 14 related to Rogers. Both are connected to the Project Brazen 2 case. The earliest the public would be given access to this information is March 19.
Detectives are investigating allegations of “criminality” related to Ford and others, according to court documents connected to the probe. Charges have already been laid against Lisi for drug trafficking and for extortion in connection with attempts to retrieve the crack cocaine video shot one year ago.
On the video, Ford is seen smoking crack and making racially charged and homophobic remarks. Off-camera, a voice that police believe is Ford friend Elena Basso is heard goading the mayor into making remarks, by asking questions about Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau (Ford calls Trudeau a “fag”) and Ford’s Don Bosco high school football team (Ford says they are “just ----ing minorities.”
The embarrassing and potentially politically damaging video was recorded in the basement of the Basso home at 15 Windsor Dr. in north Etobicoke. That home was the subject of a violent attack on May 21, a few days after news of the crack video became public. An unknown man broke in and assaulted Elena Basso’s brother, Fabio, and his girlfriend. No charges have been laid in that attack.
This week, Blair handed oversight of the Project Brazen 2 probe to the OPP, following an escalating war of words between Blair and the Ford brothers, who accused the chief of carrying out a politically motivated attack on the Fords.
Kevin Donovan can be reached at (416) 312-3503 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 
(416) 312-3503 FREE end_of_the_skype_highlighting or kdonovan@thestar.ca
(416) 312-3503 FREE end_of_the_skype_highlighting or kdonovan@thestar.ca
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