AUGUSTA — The Maine Attorney General’s Office has filed an eight-count indictment against a former Alfred lawmaker.
The indictment filed in Maine Superior Court accuses David R. Burns, 44, of multiple counts of forgery, theft, falsifying reports and misuse of public funds in the Maine Clean Election Act.
Burns, a Republican, was elected to the Legislature in 2010. He announced his resignation last week amid the attorney general’s criminal investigation into misuse of public campaign funds.
The lawmaker is accused of routing about $1,000 in public financing money to his private bank account and using the funds for personal expenses. He’s also accused of providing investigators at the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices with false documents to conceal his misuse of campaign funding.
The ethics commission recently voted unanimously to send the case to the Attorney General’s Office for a possible criminal probe.
Commission Chairman Walter McKee called Burns’ conduct “mind-boggling” and noted that his campaign had reacted with “righteous indignation” when the commission notified Burns that he was the subject of a random audit of clean election candidates.
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