05.28.2013 06:44 AM

Star: Ford’s office knew where crack tape video was filmed (updated)

After more than a week of extraordinary revelations, another one this morning: the Star is reporting that someone senior in Rob Ford’s office – paid for by Ford’s mythologized taxpayer – knew where to find the video of Ford smoking crack cocaine.

That is, the video that Ford now confidently says “doesn’t exist.”

How did they know this? Did Ford tell them to locate it? Were they hoping to buy the video themselves, and then destroy the evidence?

And why, while we’re on it, were two homicide detectives investigating this? Do the police think the murder of Anthony Smith – who knew Ford well – is connected to the video, and the office of the mayor?

Like I say: extraordinary. And getting dirtier every day.

Concerns that one of Mayor Rob Ford’s staffers was trying to obtain the crack video led to a meeting between police detectives and Ford’s former chief of staff, sources have told the Star.

Shortly after news of the video’s existence broke late on the evening of May 16, top aides began discussing the situation. One of those aides was Ford’s logistics man and former high school football coach, David Price.

Also present during discussions were then chief of staff Mark Towhey and two other senior officials. Price contacted Towhey late on May 17 and asked “hypothetically” what if someone had told him where the video was. “What would we do?” Towhey was asked.

Towhey, a former military man and the most experienced official in Ford’s office, was alarmed at Price’s comments. Price went further and said, “What if a source has told me where the video might be found?”

Shocked, Towhey told Price that the only thing he would advise is going to the police. Price also said that the video may have been the reason that Anthony Smith, a person pictured in a photo with Ford, was killed.

Towhey’s response, according to sources, was to tell Price that he would be contacting police.

Towhey called police, and shortly before he went in to give a sworn statement on May 18, Price contacted him and passed on the apartment numbers and floor (17th) of a building in Rexdale where Price said his “sources” had told him the video might be found. Price did not identify his sources.

When Towhey went to the police he did not inform his boss, Mayor Ford. He gave a statement, identifying Price as the originator of this information. Price was later asked to give a statement.

The Star has been unable to reach Price but will continue to try and will pose questions to him regarding this matter.

UPDATED: This morning, Ford was asked by media why his staff knew where video was. His response: “Ask my staff.”

18 Comments

  1. Bill From Willowdale says:

    Wow! I wake up in the morning thinking that this whole Ford deal can’t get any seemlier but then it does.

  2. michael s says:

    Towhey is smart enough to inoculate himself from future prosecution.

    • Reality.Bites says:

      To willingly go down with Ford’s ship one must be more stupid than Ford himself.

      Such people are not easily found.

  3. james curran says:

    My questions are………….what the hell is Earl thinking? Why is he still working for these made-for-tv clowns?

  4. I presume you were making the point that Price claimed he knew the video was in that building on the 17’th floor on May 17, and then 4 days later, somebody got shot on the 17’th floor of that building. I could see why Towhey would find that coincidence disturbing, and contact the police. The timing is curious also, inasmuch as the certainty of the Fords that the video does not exist seemed solidified a day or so later. The Star is being meagre with their conclusions, but is dishing out salient facts nonetheless. I do not know what to think. What we can see is a big mess. I wish we had more than disjointed facts and conjecture printed to date by the Star and Globe.

  5. Arnold Murphy says:

    Maybe waterboarding is the answer, Harper and McKay get answers from 15 year olds that way. Extraordinary rendition is acceptable by Ford as well I am sure, so no harm no foul, pick him up and get to the bottom of this once and for all. After all we are all about this stuff now, it’s about time we see the results domestically. I could imagine that neither brother would last long under even the toughest of police interviews, conducted legally, and in this case the police have motive and opportunity to link the Fords to an address that apparently had gun play. Now to inject yet another parallel with another criminal enterprise gone wrong, it sounds an awful lot like it could have gone down much like the O.J. gets his stuff back incident. This is not over by a long shot.

  6. partrick says:

    Okay this really takes my breath away! Is a murder enough to finally convince Crack Nation that the Fords are exactly what they appear to be – ignorant, nasty, venal rich kids with an overwhelming sense of entitlement without an ounce of merit.

  7. Dennis Hollingsworth says:

    Toronto’s Two-Headed Mayor Doug / Rob Ford have single-handedly created a whole new category of “Preposterous Stupidity” for The American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

    I do not believe their behaviours can be driven by anything other than some kind of very serious extended Drug Intoxication and / or severely warped pathology.

    In their efforts to purely distract from the important Credibility questions at hand pertaining to their own competence to perform their current City government duties, they proceed to boast about their perceived accomplishments, in terms of All the Gravy Boat Cash they have apparently saved for the City.

    A balanced treatment of these overly exaggerated claims MUST include a consideration for the Millions of $$$’s (weekly) that these two miscreant Morons continue to cost our fine city, in terms of Lost Opportunites.

  8. Graham says:

    Didn’t the head of the homicide squad say yesterday that while his detectives did conduct an interview, it was not related to a homicide? His said his detectives had more “experience” in doing interviews.

    I’ll try to find the quote.

  9. Brammer says:

    Even if the video surfaces, he only has to claim that he was smoking tobacco, oregano, or what have you. Nothing to see here folks. Just another slander job by the media (sarcasm).

  10. Moira says:

    WoW!!! Now Toronto is catching up with Chicago and Detroit for political skullduggery!

  11. Moira says:

    FYI…. the TV series “Hannibal” is also taped in Toronto. Watch out or you too could be on somebody’s menu !!

  12. EB says:

    Perhaps Toronto needs its own version of the Charbonneau Commission?

    The way this is going, ex-mayor of Laval Gilles Vaillancourt will not be the only municipal official in Canada charged with gangsterism.

    Why do I feel this is going to get VERY ugly before this is over?

    What if the video is not the ONLY thing that was made to “disappear”?

    This is scary!

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