SKOWHEGAN — The second criminal case prosecutors have brought against the former superintendent of the Anson-Madison Water District can continue to trial, a judge ruled recently.

Superior Court Chief Justice Robert E. Mullen denied a request by Michael Corson, the former superintendent previously accused of theft, to dismiss one Class C count of aggravated criminal invasion of computer privacy.

The case is now to be scheduled for a trial in Skowhegan in September.

Corson, 55, of Madison, had asked for the charge to be dropped in March, court records show.

Corson’s attorney, Darrick X. Banda of the Augusta law firm Bourget & Banda, in a March 6 court filing took issue with prosecutors’ decision to file the computer privacy charge the same day they dismissed the previous theft case against Corson.

Michael Corson, left, and attorney Darrick X. Banda leave Somerset County Courthouse in Skowhegan after the case against Corson was dismissed in March 2024. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

Corson had been set to face trial on four counts of theft by misapplication of property in March 2024.

Prosecutors had previously discussed the computer privacy charge in plea deal negotiations in the theft case, but did not decide to file it until after they decided to dismiss the theft charges the morning before a trial was set to begin, Banda wrote.

“In short, the pending indictment has not been prosecuted ‘with due diligence,’” Banda concluded. “To the contrary, prosecution has been an afterthought on the heels of a failed prosecution.”

Mullen disagreed, following a March 28 hearing. The chief justice wrote in his order that the conduct alleged in the computer privacy and theft charges were different.

At the hearing, prosecutors argued they did not receive a law enforcement report about the computer privacy charge until Feb. 14, 2024, Mullen’s order says.

Prosecutors, however, said their office “unintentionally” did not provide a police report to Corson via discovery until March 7, but Banda did not alert them to the issue.

For those reasons, Mullen wrote there was no unnecessary delay in bringing the computer privacy case to trial. He also ruled that there was not a double jeopardy violation.

Mullen’s decision marks the latest development in a case that has seen several twists and turns over the last four years.

Banda, Corson’s attorney, has called prosecutors’ case a waste of time and resources. District Attorney Maeghan Maloney, the top prosecutor in Kennebec and Somerset counties, meanwhile, has characterized her office’s case as one focused on public corruption.

Corson and a district foreman, Michael Jordan, were originally charged with theft in December 2021 following a Somerset County Sheriff’s Office investigation that began with a tip from a member the Water District’s board of trustees.

Investigators believed at the time that the two had sold old water lines to a scrap metal dealer and kept the proceeds totaling more than $12,000. Keeping the proceeds was alleged to have been against the district’s policy, although one industry leader told the Morning Sentinel that is a common practice in Maine.

Both Corson and the foreman were also fired. Around the same time, the district fired its entire staff and its trustees began contracting with the Maine Rural Water Association to operate the district.

In February 2022, the theft charges against Corson and Jordan were dropped after Maloney’s office said it learned of new evidence.

But prosecutors soon reversed course, and a Somerset County grand jury indicted Corson on two counts of theft later that month. Jordan was not indicted at that time.

At the time, Banda called the move a politically motivated decision in response to public backlash following the earlier dismissal.

A few weeks later, the Water District sued Corson in U.S. District Court in Bangor, alleging he changed passwords to important Water District email and software applications while on administrative leave and did not provide them after he was fired. Water District staff regained access to the accounts soon after the lawsuit was filed.

Corson pleaded not guilty to the theft charges in April 2022. Both sides agreed to dismiss the federal lawsuit in May 2022 as they had reached a settlement, according to court records.

In August 2023, a Somerset County grand jury returned a superseding indictment that added two counts of theft. Corson ultimately faced class B, C, D and E counts of theft by misapplication of property. The different classes accounted for different dollar values of the items stolen, with the most severe Class B count alleging theft of property with a value of more than $10,000.

Those were the charges prosecutors dismissed right as a trial was set to begin.

The new charge of aggravated criminal invasion of computer privacy alleges that Corson “did intentionally or knowingly damage a computer resource of Anson-Madison Water District, having no reasonable ground to believe that he had the right to do so.”

The alleged crime was committed in Madison between Nov. 23, 2021, and March 12, 2022, a July 2024 grand jury indictment says. Corson’s employment with the district was terminated in December 2021, according to previous Morning Sentinel reports.

Corson has pleaded not guilty.

It is not clear in court filings if the allegation is linked with the previous federal lawsuit pertaining to the district’s access to accounts.

Banda said at a scheduling hearing in February that Corson had signed a confidential settlement agreement with the district, which was somehow related to the computer privacy allegation.

Kirsten Hebert, executive director of the Maine Rural Water Association, which operates the Anson-Madison district, wrote in an email recently that she could not disclose the details of that agreement.

Hebert confirmed it was signed March 18, 2022, two months before the federal lawsuit was dropped.