FARMINGTON — A former Franklin County prosecutor is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday at U.S. District Court in Bangor for telling a former law officer he was under investigation and for deleting text messages with him.

Kayla Alves, 36, of Farmington pleaded guilty on March 8 to a federal charge of tampering with documents in a plea agreement at U.S. District Court in Bangor. The sentencing is set for 3 p.m.

Defense attorney Walter McKee of McKee Law in Augusta is requesting Alves spend no time in prison and be sentenced to probation while U.S. Attorney Darcie McElwee and Assistant U.S. Attorney Noah Falk are asking for zero to six months of incarceration, according to court documents.

Alves was initially one of 12 people charged in October 2020, but was not indicted, in an alleged criminal conspiracy operation of industrial cultivation and distribution of marijuana and other crimes including money laundering, tax fraud and public corruptions offenses. Federal prosecutors allege that Lucas Sirois of Rangeley spearheaded the operation. Sirois and 14 others, including three businesses, are currently under indictment. All have pleaded not guilty. Trials are scheduled for November.

The ‘Sirois Organization’ allegedly operated in Franklin County marijuana grows in violation of both federal law and relevant state law, though defense attorneys allege it was legally operated under Maine marijuana laws.

According to court documents, Bradley Scovil of Rangeley, a former Franklin County sheriff’s deputy, was under investigation with others in April 2020, and contacted local law enforcement to run license plates of vehicles believed to have been following them.

In connection with these activities, “Scovil contacted Kayla Alves to request her assistance in solving this mystery.” Alves had previously worked cases with Scovil, and was also his next door neighbor when he lived in Farmington, according to court documents.

As allegedly reflected in text messages “between Scovil and Alves later recovered by the FBI, Scovil asked Alves whether she knew ‘if (he) was being investigated” by law enforcement because Scovil had someone follow him to different places and then back to work.

Alves replied she ‘wouldn’t know’ because she was working at home during the COVID-19 pandemic but stated if she heard anything she would let him know.

Scovil allegedly contacted Alves again on June 8, 2020, and informed her that “he believed he was being followed by law enforcement, and asked her to look into it. She conferred with a colleague who confirmed to Alves that she believed Scovil’s boss Lucas Sirois, was under federal investigation.

On July 21, 2020, FBI agents interviewed Alves about her contact with Scovil. She admitted she had informed Scovil about the law enforcement investigation. Following her interview with the FBI, Alves deleted the text messages she sent to and received from Scovil on her cellphone.

Alves “crimes were extremely serious; a sitting state prosecutor violated her professional responsibilities and betrayed law enforcement confidences in her care in order to benefit the target of a significant and long-running federal criminal investigation. Her thoughtless actions required a response no less serious than her own criminal prosecution.

“Nevertheless, after considering her acceptance of responsibility, the significant collateral consequences of her prosecution, and her compelling personal circumstances, as ably summarized in the defendant’s sentencing submission, the government has agreed to recommend a sentence of between zero and six months of incarceration,” according to the federal document.

A defense sentencing memorandum, states in part, Scovil “claimed to Kayla, falsely, to be involved in a legal marijuana growing business. Scovil asked Kayla if he was being watched by the police. Kayla spoke with a person at the Franklin County District Attorney’s Office, where Kayla had worked as assistant district attorney since 2018, and Kayla was told that in fact ‘the feds’ may be investigating Scovil,” according to the defense submission. ”

After passing the information to Scovil, “she destroyed a series of text messages related to that information, a crime that Kayla pled guilty to on March 8, 2022.”

“As Kayla looks back upon the terrible decision she made in a split second when she deleted the text messages, and for which she received zero gain, she cannot believe she did so, and she now finds herself before this court, having plead guilty to a felony crime and asking for the court’s mercy,” according to McKee.

“But while Kayla clearly committed this offense and has fully and completely accepted responsibility for it, she is more than just the measure of that one criminal action. Kayla’s life is one of perseverance, hardship, working day in and day out to be the best mother to her three boys who are now 15, 12 and 9. At the same time Kayla has strived in her life to better herself, serve her country, and live a completely law abiding — indeed, enforcing — life.”

“At the end of the day, Kayla recognizes that she must be sentenced for what she did, but asks that this court place her on probation and not incarceration for the crime she committed,” according to the memorandum.

Alves graduated from Catherine McAuley High School in 2003 in Portland. After a year of college, she joined the U.S. Army.  After graduating from basic training in 2004 and completing her advanced training the following year, she served with the Army’s 25th Infantry Division. Her service included deployment to Iraq. She received two Army Commendation Medals, two Good Conduct medals; a National Defense service Medal; a Global War on Terrorism Medal, and an Iraq Campaign Medal with Campaign Star,” among other recognition.

A statement Alves provided to a probation officer that explained the background of why she ended up doing what she did, concluded with the following:

“Words cannot express how terrible I feel about what I did. I certainly knew better and never should have spoken with Scovil at all or texted with him. I also should have never deleted my text messages as that was clearly the wrong thing to do.

There is not a single hour of my day when I do not think about what I did and how wrong it was. The fact this incredible mistake could put me in prison is gut-wrenching. I was brought up to the tell the truth and to be honest in everything I did. I have lived these lessons in my personal life and my work life as a soldier and ultimately an attorney. I have taught my sons these same lessons which makes what I did here all the more distressing.

In the end, I cannot apologize enough for what I did,” Alves wrote in the statement.