OPP closes investigation into Niagara Region's hiring of Carmen D'Angelo

The Ontario Provincial Police anti-racketeering unit will not pursue a criminal investigation into the 2016 hiring of former Niagara Region chief administrative officer Carmen D'Angelo, the St. Catharines Standard has learned.

In an email obtained by the Standard, the OPP said there was no evidence of criminal activity associated to the hiring of Mr. D'Angelo."

However, police also said the hiring, which involved D'Angelo receiving several confidential documents and assistance from the office of then-regional chair Alan Caslin, may have violated the Provincial Offences Act.

But the OPP said due to the four-year statute of limitations for those offences they were prevented from moving forward in this regard."

After a more than 400-day investigation which followed more than 18 months of reporting by the Standard, Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dube found D'Angelo's hiring to be an inside job" orchestrated from within Caslin's office.

It was a scheme that stretched back to 2015, and also involved members of regional council who sat on the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority board, where D'Angelo worked at the time. Also involved was former Port Colborne regional councillor and former NCPA manager David Barrick, who tried to get at least one Region manager to promote D'Angelo as Region CAO months in advance of the hiring process starting.

After the ombudsman released his report, the current iteration of regional council forwarded the report to Niagara Regional Police with a request for further investigation. The NRP in turn sent it to the OPP because the local police force is funded by the Region.

Caslin, his former policy director Robert D'Amboise and his former communications director Jason Tamming face an $850,000 lawsuit from the Region for their role in D'Angelo's hiring.

D'Angelo left his post in February and filed a $1.15-million constructive dismissal suit against the Region. He has since asked the Region to settle for $500,000, an offer that was refused.

D'Angelo has also said he will attempt to get a court order to prevent the Region from obtaining key documents from NPCA servers which were core evidence used by both the Standard and the Ombudsman's investigations.

This is a developing story. More to come.

Grant LaFleche is a St. Catharines-based investigative reporter with the Standard. Reach him via email: grant.lafleche@niagaradailies.com