The Barenaked Ladies finally have a blemish on their reps more unsavoury than their seemingly endless string of cheeseball hits. According to court documents filed in a New York State courthouse, BNL singer Steven Page admitted to police that he was indeed snorting cocaine Friday morning, prior to his arrest.
As previously reported, police hauled away Page and 25-year-old Stephanie Ford after the cops came across Page hanging out with his friend-- and, allegedly, an "unknown white capsule" -- in her apartment. Police had entered the unit while investigating a suspicious-looking vehicle parked outside.
Court documents, containing statements from Page and his friend, have since been obtained by Canwest News Service. According to the docs, Ford said that she and Page were snorting cocaine (and inadvertently toasting his Canadian heritage) through a rolled-up Canadian bill when the cops showed up.
In addition to the one mystery capsule allegedly spied by cops on her kitchen table, Ford claims that Page was carrying several tablets containing what she believed to be cocaine in a bottle marked "calcium."
The documents reveal that Page was questioned by cops about what he was carrying in the bottle.
"Yeah, it's cocaine," Page replied (as per the statement recorded in the report).
As for how a father of three whose band just released a children's album wound up in this sordid den of mystery powders, Ford told police that their arrest was the end of a bad night that began with Page bickering with his 27-year-old girlfriend, Christine Benedicto.
Ford told police that the couple began arguing in a bar after Page became convinced she was flirting with another guy. Soon after, Page fled the bar, saying he was going to drive back home to Canada. Ford, seeing her pal was too drunk to run for the border, claims she tried to prevent him from getting in the driver's seat -- going so far as to follow him back to his and Benedicto's apartment, where she proceeded to sit on the doughy pop star to keep him from escaping. Page's girlfriend reportedly showed up later on to take away his car keys. She left the scene, but was later arrested on drug charges.
If Ford’s allegations are to be believed, somewhere amid all of this, snorting a tablet of blow suddenly became an awesome idea.
According to police, the Scarborough native was carrying a third of an ounce of cocaine when he was locked up Friday morning. He later posted $10,000 (U.S.) bail -- money that surely would've been better spent on "fancy dijon ketchups" or "crazy elephant bones."
Page's court date is set for August 26. A blog post on the Barenaked Ladies' MySpace page dated July 16 states that "Steven has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and the validity of the charges against Steven will be strongly contested." If Page is found guilty, he could be imprisoned for a maximum of 15 years.
The Barenaked Ladies' next scheduled gig is a Disney and Playskool sponsored children's charity benefit in Uniondale, New York August 22.
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