Court cases revolve around Ford crack video

(Update)

While more questions were fired at Mayor Ford at City Hall, a couple of key court cases connected to the now infamous crack video were moving ahead. An Ontario Superior Court judge is now one of only a few people to have seen the video and he’ll soon decide if an alleged gang member will be allowed to see it as well. But there is no sign the public will see it any time soon. Sean Leathong has the details from Toronto.

We are learning that there are in fact 2 videos, but they are a long and short version of the same event. Justice Ian Nordheimer watched the long version, which runs 90 seconds, in private Tuesday afternoon.

This has all come about as lawyers for Mohammed Khattack, who is on the far right of this now famous picture with Mayor Rob Ford, argue that their client has the right to see the video too. It has been confirmed that even though Khattack is in the video, he does not appear in the crack video nor does his voice appear.

His lawyers say that this has dogged their client for 5 months as that photo is associated with the video. Khattack is facing drug trafficing charges in relation to Project Traveller but his lawyers say he might launch a civil suit against the creators of the video, or whoever tried to sell the video to the Toronto Star. Nathan Gorham is the lawyer for Mohammed Khattak: ” behind this in any way.”

The judge said that he will reserve his ruling to a later date.

There was another court proceeding connected to the Mayor Tuesday. Lawyers for Sando Lisi, Mayor Rob Ford’s friend and occasional driver appeared in court to set a date for a pre trial meeting in regards to drug related charges for Lisi and his co-accused Jamsheed Berhami. Mr. Lisi was not in court at this event. No surprise as his run ins with the media haven’t been pleasant. This was the first set of charges from back in the early fall, before Lisi was charged a second time with extortion in an alleged attempt to retrieve the crack video. The hearing has been set for January 14th. He will next appear in court in relations to the extortion charge on December 6th.