Mayor Rob Ford responds (sort of) to allegation he ordered jail-house beating

When you've been accused of ordering the “vicious” jail-house beating of your sister's ex-boyfriend, all you can really do is hit the gym.

This, according to Toronto Mayor Rob Ford who was named on Wednesday in a statement of claim alleging he had a former football player attack Scott McIntyre in a Toronto detention centre last year.

Ford's lawyer, Dennis Morris, has called the allegations "without fact or foundation."

On Thursday, Ford declined to discuss the allegation during his weekly appearance on a Washington, D.C. sports radio program, saying the constant barrage of allegations and controversies that has plagued his time as mayor hasn't gotten him down.

"What are you going to do? You gotta focus on saving taxpayers' money and work out," he told the Sports Junkies.

Ford said he was making his weekly radio appearance by phone from the gym, where he had reportedly completed 20 leg presses of more than 800 lbs. The sports radio hosts were audibly impressed; Ford promised to send them a video.

[ Related: Statement of claim alleges Mayor Rob Ford was behind jailhouse beating ]

Ford went on to discuss the Super Bowl – predicting the Denver Broncos would beat the Seattle Seahawks handily on Sunday – as well as the recent arrest of Justin Bieber, charged with assaulting a Toronto limo driver.

"He's a young guy, at 19 years old I wish I was as successful as he was," Ford said. "He's 19 years old, think back to when you were 19."

Bieber was charged on Thursday of assaulting a limo driver while being driven from a nightclub to his hotel room with a six-person entourage in downtown Toronto last December.

He also faces charges in Miami of drag racing a rented Lamborghini while under the influence of alcohol and resisting arrest.

[ More Brew: Justin Bieber charged with assault of Toronto limo driver ]

All of this comes on the backdrop of perhaps the most serious allegations made against Ford since he took office in 2010.

MacIntyre, the former common-law spouse of Ford’s sister, alleges in his statement of claim that he was familiar with the mayor’s history of substance abuse issues and illegal drug use before media reports brought some of it to light last year. It claims that Ford was anxious to keep those details "undiscovered."

MacIntyre was arrested in January 2012 and convicted of uttering threats against the mayor. MacIntyre claims on the night of the arrest he had visited Ford's home to collect a debt owed to him by Kathy Ford, his former partner and the mayor's sister. The statement of claim says he left after giving Ford a warning that he should be "careful about how he treated the plaintiff because the plaintiff knew things about Ford and his family which had not been made public."

The lawsuit claims Ford conspired with Payman Aboodowleh, a former assistant coach of the mayor, and Aedan Petros, a former player for the Don Bosco Eagles under Ford's tutelage who was arrested in 2011, to send MacIntyre a message.

The lawsuit alleges:

Ford told the Toronto Sun before the lawsuit was made public that the idea that he would ask a former football player to assault someone in jail was "far-fetched."

None of the allegations have been challenged or proven in court.

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