Maine State Police officers load marijuana plants July 21, 2020, into a shipping container on a truck behind Narrow Gauge Distributors in Farmington. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal file

BANGOR — A former Franklin County assistant district attorney pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to tampering with documents in connection with an illegal marijuana distribution and money laundering scheme in that county.

Kayla Alves, 36, of Farmington was named last year as one of a dozen defendants in the alleged conspiracy and charged with two federal crimes, but was never indicted.

Early in February, Alves reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors in which she would plead guilty to one count of tampering with documents, a charge punishable by up to 20 years in prison and maximum fine of $250,000.

A hearing on that plea was held Tuesday in U.S. District Court.

Under the terms of her plea agreement, federal prosecutors will recommend she be sentenced to no more than six months in prison.

Walter McKee, Alves’ attorney, will argue that she serve no time behind bars.

“Kayla pled guilty to what she did: She heard that (former Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy Bradley) Scovil, her neighbor, might be being investigated by ‘the feds’ and she told Scovil that,” McKee said Tuesday.

“She realized quickly that she should not have even passed this along and deleted her text messages that said that.”

McKee said Alves wasn’t involved in the alleged marijuana conspiracy.

“It is important to remember that this is the sum total of what Kayla was charged with and pled guilty to. She had zero knowledge of the conspiracy here, and was led to believe that what Scovil was doing was above board,” McKee said.

“Kayla feels terrible that she got involved with any of this, even in this small way. But she is a strong person — she’s a single mother of three boys and (is) an Army veteran — and she will get through this.”

Alves served six years in the U.S. Army, including an overseas deployment in Iraq, achieving the rank of sergeant.

She worked as a prosecutor in Franklin County for two years.

No sentencing date has been set. She remains free on her own recognizance.

After her sentencing, Alves will be required to report to the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar, which will determine her status as a licensed attorney in this state, McKee said.

Federal prosecutors said that in November 2019, Scovil, Alves’ colleague and next-door neighbor, left his job as a deputy to work for Lucas Sirois.

“Scovil falsely informed Alves that he and Sirois, among others, worked to manufacture and distribute CBD products. In reality, Scovil was a partner in Sirois’s illegal marijuana business,” according to court documents filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Noah Falk.

Starting at least in April 2020, Scovil “repeatedly asked Alves to use her position in order to learn whether Scovil and his colleagues were under criminal investigation,” Falk wrote.

On about April 8, 2020, Scovil sent a text message to Alves stating, in part: “Would you know if I was being investigated by mdea or the state? I had someone follow me today from work, to the car wash, to the bank, and then back to work. It was a state vehicle because the plate didn’t come back on file…” Falk wrote, adding that during that time, Scovil and Alves stayed in communication through, among other means, electronic text messages.

MDEA is the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency.

Falk wrote in court documents that Alves responded to Scovil’s text, in part, “I wouldn’t have any idea if you’re being investigated, especially now since I’m working from home. If I hear anything I’ll let you know.”

“On about July 8, 2020, at Scovil’s urging, Alves learned through her position at the District Attorney’s office that Sirois was under investigation and informed Scovil of the same,” Falk wrote.

On about July 21, 2020, the FBI interviewed Alves and she acknowledged she had informed Scovil of the FBI’s investigation into Sirois, Falk wrote.

After that interview, “Alves deleted her text message conversation with Scovil from her cellular phone in order to frustrate the FBI’s investigation into her misconduct (e.g., that she had tipped off Scovil to the existence of an investigation into the Sirois organization),” Falk wrote.

“On about July 22, 2020, the FBI seized Alves’s phone pursuant to a judicially authorized search warrant. When it was searched, the FBI learned that the text message conversation between Alves and Scovil had been deleted.”

Lucas Sirois, 41, of Farmington is alleged to have been the leader of the criminal organization, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He and his co-conspirators are accused of realizing in excess of $13 million over six years through the illicit sale of marijuana. Sirois is said to have structured operations to appear as though they complied with Maine’s medical marijuana regime while he regularly sold bulk marijuana on the illicit market, including $1 million worth of marijuana for out-of-state distribution between 2018 and 2019.

Among others indicted in the alleged scheme were Sirois’ wife, his father, a former Rangeley selectman, two former Franklin County Sheriff’s deputies and a former Wilton police officer.