Toronto

Mayor Rob Ford shrugged off the letter he wrote for Alexander “Sandro” Lisi’s sentencing hearing on a threatening charge.

And Councillor Doug Ford claimed his brother has written “numerous letters” for criminals.

Lisi, Ford’s friend and occassional driver, is now on bail facing marijuana trafficking charges and appealing his threatening conviction against his girlfriend of one year.

The letter for Lisi — made public Tuesday — was written by Ford on his City of Toronto mayor’s office letterhead and filed as part of Lisi’s sentencing hearing.

In the June 4 letter, Ford heralded Lisi’s “great work ethic,” his “tact and diplomacy” and his “exceptional leadership skills” while working on the mayor’s campaign team.

After refusing to speak about the letter for much of the day, Ford offered up a one sentence explanation as he left his office around 4 p.m.

“I write lots of letters, I support a lot of people,” Ford said, before ignoring additional questions from reporters.

The mayor did become frustrated with the media as he tried to take the elevator to the City Hall parking garage and realized the door was being blocked by a TV camera.

“Can you move the camera please? Are you going to be that ignorant? Close the door,” he said, waving a clipboard at the camera until the door started to close.

Councillor Adam Vaughan said Ford — just like any other politician — shouldn’t have waded into a criminal court matter.

“You do not interfere as a politician with court proceedings, period. And you certainly don’t do it with your letterhead,” Vaughan said. “You just don’t do it ... it’s non-negotiable.”

Ford’s allies defended the letter and a character reference letter that Ford wrote to the city’s licensing tribunal in January for a tow-truck driver who was once convicted of second-degree murder.

“Rob over his term — down at City Hall for 14 years — he has written numerous letters for people that have broken the law,” said Councillor Ford. “Let me give you an example here, his football kids, his football kids would get in trouble with the law, they’d come to Rob.

“His kids would get in trouble with the law from Don Bosco football, not only would he tell him it was wrong, tell him what to do to correct the issue, but he would show up to court with these kids. A lot of these kids didn’t have a father but they trusted one person and that’s Rob Ford.”

The Etobicoke North (Ward 2) councillor argued Mayor Ford “doesn’t judge people.

“There are a lot of people in this country that deserve a second chance that have broken the law — he’s there to write a letter in support,” he said.

Although the mayor’s letter said Lisi worked in his 2010 campaign office, Councillor Ford maintained he’s never met the man.

“I will tell you, 100% I’ve never met this gentleman, I’ve never talked to this gentleman,” he said.

Other members of Ford’s 2010 campaign team said they didn’t remember Lisi on the campaign trail. One member of the campaign team said Lisi may have done something but pointed out there were around 3,000 volunteers by election day.

Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly doubted Ford’s use of his office letterhead violated any rules and argued he had every right to write the “innocuous” letter.

— With files from Sam Pazzano