New details from a months-old police report revealed on Friday indicated that Mayor Rob Ford’s wife, Renata, displayed bruises indicative of domestic violence and was possibly inebriated, according to a Toronto Star story published by columnist Rosie DiManno.
“The mayor’s wife was slurring her words and belligerent with the driver. She either refused to pay the fare or did not have the money,” DiManno wrote. “Their argument became so heated that the cabbie called for police assistance.” The columnist said the incident occurred “nearly a year ago” and began with a dispute between Renata Ford and a cab driver outside her parents’ home.
When police arrived, DiManno wrote that they “observed that Mrs. Ford appeared to have bruising on her limbs.”
“When asked about it, she refused to say how the injuries had been suffered. She was, in fact, too incoherent to say much of anything — either inebriated or on drugs,” explained DiManno.
According to DiManno, no one was charged after the argument between Renata Ford and the driver. However, DiManno said police “tried following up” with Renata Ford afterward because they were concerned “domestic abuse may be involved.” DiManno described Renata Ford as having been “not cooperative” with the police.
This is not the first time there have been questions about domestic violence in the Ford household. In 2008, Ford, then a member of the City Council, was charged with assault and making a death threat against his wife. Those charges were dropped after prosecutors found inconsistencies in Renata Ford’s allegations that they said raised “credibility issues.”
In her story, DiManno said the Star originally obtained the police report “many months ago” and confirmed it with “police sources.” According to DiManno, “senior management at this paper decided not to publish a story about the matter” because Renata Ford “was not someone in the public eye and was therefore entitled to privacy.”
“Nobody here had any stomach for expanding the scandal engulfing Toronto’s mayor to encompass his family, thereby causing harm, particularly to the couple’s two young children,” wrote DiManno.
However, DiManno said the Star decided to publish details from the police report after Ford admitted having driven drunk and based on details from court documents released Wednesday that described Ford bringing his children to a party while he was allegedly intoxicated and being driven by an alleged drug dealer.
“There is a strong argument to be made that those kids are at risk,” DiManno wrote.
Renata Ford appeared at her husband’s side Thursday at a press conference where he apologized to explicit comments he made in reference to some of the accusations contained in the court documents.
Shortly after DiManno’s story about the police report went up online, it was removed. Via email, DiManno told TPM the story “was merely posted too early, by mistake.”
“We’ve asked Ford to comment and are waiting for response,” said DiManno.
Ford’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TPM about the report.
