Toronto chair girl Marcella Zoia denies using cocaine
The woman famous for throwing patio furniture from the balcony of a highrise onto Toronto's busy Gardiner Expressway wants the world to know that she's not a coke user, despite what you may have heard or seen on Instagram.
Marcella Zoia, 19, has taken a drug test to prove that she hasn't used cocaine, after starring in yet another controversial viral video.
The video in question, shot by Zoia herself while live streaming on Instagram a few weeks ago, shows the young woman partying with some friends. At one point, a baggie is tossed into frame and a man can be heard saying "here's the coke!" and then "cocaine."
A flustered Zoia quickly interjects with "Coca Cola!" and picks up her phone to move away.
The recording of that live stream was deleted from Zoia's account within hours of filming, but not before NEWSTALK 1010 had first downloaded and published a few choice clips.
Whether she was taking drugs that night or not, the circulation of such video footage is not ideal for someone facing charges of mischief—endangering life, mischief—damage to property over $5,000, and common nuisance.
"We're concerned that with the reports [of alleged cocaine use] last week people will come to unfounded conclusions" said Zoia's defence lawyer, Greg Leslie, to reporters outside a Toronto courtroom on Tuesday while waiting for a verdict in an unrelated trial.
"She wasn’t doing cocaine that night and she paid for a private lab to do a test the next day after the story came out," Leslie continued. "She doesn't do cocaine, but because of this social media clutter and Twitter rumours, people are speculating that she does."
Leslie said that the results of the urine drug screen test are expected sometime today.
Zoia was charged in relation to the chair-tossing incident on February 13 after turning herself in at the behest of Toronto Police. She was released that same day on a $2,000 bail and ordered to live with her mother.
Someone took a video of a chair being thrown off a #Toronto condo building pic.twitter.com/fylo70gLu0
— blogTO (@blogTO) February 11, 2019
Known widely as "Chair Girl," Zoia has been quite active on Instagram since going viral in February, though she has yet to attend any court hearings.
Leslie has appeared at least twice before a judge on behalf of his client over the past two months, arguing that her case should not go to trial.
"She wants this matter to be over with," said Leslie after the first scheduled court appearance on March 22. "It's been extremely embarrassing, I think she's lost a lot of her friends."
Leslie also said at the time that Zoia had been kicked out of her dental hygiene program at school and that her actions on February 9, when she was filmed tossing a chair from the balcony of a condo building near York and Harbour Streets, were the result of peer pressure.
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