Toronto police detectives working on the Mayor Rob Ford case have gone back to court seeking more search warrants for cellphone and other records. 

The Toronto Star applied to a Superior Court judge on Tuesday to lift the sealing orders on the court documents, a process that could take weeks or months. 

The Star has learned that, as part of their ongoing probe of Ford and others, Project Brazen 2 investigators went before a judge just three weeks ago, on Jan. 14, to request a search warrant for Rogers cellphone records. 

Police, in a series of requests on dates that include Jan. 14 and Nov. 29, are seeking additional records connected to the Ford investigation.  The Star does not know which records specifically are sought with these two applications, although the Jan. 14 request does relate to Rogers. ( A spokesman for the company did not return a request for comment.)  The requests could relate specifically to Ford or to people connected to the Ford investigation. 

RELATED:

Rob Ford investigation still very active, police say

Rob Ford: The inside story of the police investigation

Ford friends’ hunt for cellphone sparked probe

A source with knowledge of the ongoing investigation said police already have call information and GPS data for Ford’s OnStar device in his Cadillac Escalade dating back to early last year.  In addition, police have been seeking call records for Ford’s two cellphones during the time the mayor was under police surveillance, the source said. 

The Project Brazen 2 investigation began in May after the Star and Gawker published a description of a video showing Ford smoking crack cocaine and making racially charged and homophobic comments.  The investigation to date has led to extortion charges against Ford friend Alexander “Sandro” Lisi, and to drug charges against Lisi and two other men. 

The Star has no information suggesting police have ever tapped, or asked to tap, Ford’s phones.  These new search warrant documents relate to requests to obtain “dialed number records” — data showing time and length of phone calls.  The request for the OnStar GPS would provide vehicle location that could be matched to time of call and the numbers that are being called, the source said. 

Lawyers for the Star are asking that these two sealing orders be lifted, along with three other sealing orders referenced in a nearly 500-page police document filed last October in support of a search warrant application for the home of Lisi, the mayor’s friend and a known drug dealer who is now facing an extortion charge in connection with his attempts to retrieve the infamous “crack video.” 

Those three additional orders, dated Aug. 30, Sept. 23 and Sept. 26, are related to search warrants obtained by police to enter vehicles driven by Lisi, conduct wiretaps, and gather Lisi’s cellphone records. 

The Star is arguing that unsealing the documents is in the public interest and that citizens should be able to see what information police use when using the courts to apply for search warrants. 

In his application, Toronto Star lawyer Ryder Gilliland stresses that sealing the search warrant requests “constitutes an ongoing violation of the public’s right to know” and open-court principles enshrined in Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 

“The basis upon which the police obtained warrants and/or production orders is a matter of great public interest and is deserving of public oversight,” states the Star’s application for the records to be unsealed. 

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Late last year, the Star and other media outlets successfully argued in court that large portions of censored information contained in the 500-page police document should be made public. 

The “information to obtain” or “ITO” filed for a search warrant provides information already gleaned by investigators.  That information is then put before a judge to request access to more information. 

The document the Star and other media successfully obtained last fall detailed the fruits — as of Oct. 2, 2013 — of a massive spring-summer police investigation that included surveillance of Ford and Lisi, interviews with the mayor’s staff and wiretapped conversations involving several individuals now facing drug charges. 

Det.  Sgt.  Gary Giroux, the lead detective in the Ford investigation, said Monday that police are continuing to conduct interviews and will make applications to get records as required.  He would not comment specifically on the next steps police may be taking. 

The Ford probe came about last spring, when detectives working on a massive guns and gangs investigation in the Dixon neighbourhood of northern Etobicoke picked up chatter among alleged gangsters about the mayor smoking drugs and a “crack video” featuring Ford. 

Giroux told CP24 this week he was commanded by senior officers to “take the investigation any direction it goes involving criminality in the mayor or the mayor’s office.” 

The Star is seeking an appearance before Justice Ian Nordheimer on Thursday to set a date to argue the request to have the records unsealed. 

Read more about: