Niagara Regional Police won't be laying any charges against a local blogger, but his recorder remains in police hands.
This after the blogger, Preston Haskell, was accused by some members of council of recording a closed door session regarding a code of conduct report on December 7th.
Haskell and a St. Catharines Standard journalist, Bill Sawchuk, both faced allegations that night, and their equipment was seized. The paper reports Sawchuk was able to recover his gear hours later after calls from the paper's lawyer.
NRP spokesperson Stephanie Sabourin emailed the Standard to say, 'The Niagara Regional Police Service is aware of, and co-operating fully, with the Ombudsman’s office and its continuing investigation.'
Sabourin told the paper that as long as a report to justice is filed, police can maintain possession of property during the course of an investigation.
The recorder will remain with police until the Ombudsman makes a decision regarding the events of that night.
At the beginning of this month, the Ombudsman indicated the investigation is starting to wrap up.