Lisi selects jury trial in extortion case
Efforts to get crack-smoking video of former mayor Ford are at heart of Crown’s case
Rob Ford’s friend and former driver Alexander “Sandro” Lisi now faces trial for alleged extortion of a convicted gang member to get the crack video.
On Thursday afternoon, Ontario Court Justice Mara Greene committed Lisi to stand trial, with consent of lawyers, at a later date that has not yet been set.
Last month, Lisi pleaded not guilty to the charge.
This past week and during the first week of March, Lisi faced a preliminary hearing in the case. The evidence in that hearing remains covered by a publication ban.
Lisi’s lawyers, Domenic Basile and Seth Weinstein, have said on his behalf that he wishes to have a jury trial.
The single charge of extortion — laid when Lisi was arrested in October 2013 — is one of just a few charges that have resulted from the massive police investigation that involved late-night surveillance, including an airplane, and that targeted Ford and his associates.
The alleged victim, Liban Siyad, is one of several people police accused of being part of a north Eboticoke gang known as the Dixon Bloods. He was one of more than 40 people arrested as part of raids in June 2013, which culminated an earlier police investigation known as Project Traveller.
In December, Siyad pled guilty to several gun, drug and gang-related offences.
As part of that investigation, police had wiretaps on several phones of alleged gang members, which recorded conversations related to Ford, the crack video and efforts to sell it to the media.
After the Star and Gawker published stories about seeing the crack video, police launched the second investigation, targeting Ford, which became known as Project Brazen 2.
The same day Lisi was charged with extortion, police Chief Bill Blair told aroom full of reporters that the crack video had also been recovered from a laptop that was seized during Project Traveller.
Blair said then that the crack video would be handed over to the Crown’s office to be made evidence at trial.
Ford was also one of the people subpoenaed to testify at the preliminary hearing. He is now facing surgery for a rare form of cancer that is scheduled on May 11.
This week, Crown attorney John Patton requested that an adjournment be granted until September, but on Thursday withdrew that request. The reasons for the request are also covered by the publication ban. Lisi is back in court on May 27, where lawyers will discuss scheduling.
He also faces drug-related charges alongside dry-cleaner Jamshid Bahrami.
Those charges also stem from Project Brazen 2, after an officer went undercover at the Etobicoke dry cleaners. Both men pleaded not guilty to those charges. That trial resumes this month.