Former Alna Town Clerk Karen Smith pleaded guilty August 9 to aggravated criminal mischief in connection with a 2011 fire at her Edgecomb home.

State investigators allege Smith put combustibles on a gas stove, used an accelerant, and turned on the two front burners, according to documents filed in Lincoln County Superior Court. Smith had “exclusive opportunity to start the fire,” based on statements she and neighbors made to investigators; no one else was seen in the area that day, investigator Kenneth MacMaster with the state fire marshal's office wrote in September 2011.

Aggravated criminal mischief is a felony, punishable by up to 5 years in prison. Smith was initially charged with arson and faced up to 30 years in prison.

A necessary component of aggravated criminal mischief is that the actions threaten human life. Particularly because propane was involved, the fire posed a danger to firefighters who responded to the scene, Assistant District Attorney Andrew Wright said during the plea proceeding.

As part of a plea deal, Smith's sentencing will be deferred for a year. If she completes 100 hours of community service and continues to receive counseling, her charge will be reduced to misdemeanor failure to control a fire and she will pay a $200 fine.

In April 2012, Smith's attorney tried to get the court to throw out Smith's statements and evidence from a search. The statements were involuntary and the search violated her Constitutional rights, Jeremy Pratt argued in a motion to the court. However, a hearing, repeatedly delayed by scheduling issues, was never held and the court never ruled on the request.

Pratt's motion “wasn't very important” in the decision to make the plea deal with Smith, Wright said in an interview. “We viewed this as more of a mental health case, an escalation of behavior that was endangering her and others,” Wright said. “We wanted to make sure that it stopped and wasn't repeated, and so far it appears that it's working.”

“I'm very much rooting for the good outcome in this, because that means we were correct in our assumptions here,” Wright said. 

Smith was Alna's town clerk for about a year between 2008 and 2009. In recent years, she was involved in a dispute with the town of Edgecomb over her gravel pit. A lawsuit she brought against the town was settled out of court, after selectmen learned the town's insurance did not protect them individually.