The case against Frank magazine writer Andrew Douglas is now over.
Douglas was charged in July with breaching a publication ban after Frank magazine published a story that relates to the murder case pending against Christopher Garnier, who is accused of second-degree murder in the death of Catherine Campbell, an off-duty Truro police officer.
READ MORE: Court documents detail Catherine Campbell’s death
Friday, the Crown chose to offer no evidence in the case and the charge against Douglas was dismissed.
“We spent thousands of dollars defending a charge that should never have been laid,” Douglas told reporters moments after the charge was dropped.
“Having reached the conclusion that there was a reasonable doubt, we made the decision not to proceed any further,” said Paul Carver, Crown attorney.
WATCH: Who is the man accused of killing Catherine Campbell?
Global News cannot report the contents of the story published by Frank magazine due to a publication ban.
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Douglas says his magazine received the information for their story independently and not from Garnier’s preliminary inquiry. Therefore, he says it is not covered under a publication ban.
Douglas also says that the Frank magazine article in question went to print before the ban was put in place.
“This story gave us so much grief,” said Douglas.
“It was pulled from a lot of store shelves in Truro and Pictou County. People were apoplectic about this story and law enforcement and the Crown just couldn’t believe we would publish this.”
Douglas now says the case against him was mishandled from the beginning.
“They wanted to make me personally pay for it. They wanted to see somebody bleed. They wanted somebody to have a criminal record. You can’t give a company a criminal record, ‘let’s charge Andrew Douglas, we can give him a criminal record,'” he said.
With the charges against him dropped, Douglas says he is weighing whether to launch a lawsuit for malicious prosecution.
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