AUGUSTA — The Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Elections Practices on Wednesday ruled freshman Republican legislator Rep. David Burns of Alfred violated eight Maine election laws, including falsifying records and misusing Maine Clean Election Act funds and ordered him to repay about $2,300. They then referred the case to the attorney general’s office for possible criminal prosecution.

The commissioners ruled that any penalties associated with the civil violations would be deferred until the attorney general’s review is complete.

The panel, with four of five members present, unanimously found that in 2010, Burns illegally mingled MCEA funds with personal funds, made false statements, used funds not related to his campaign, mis-reported expenditures, used campaign funds for his personal use and used MCEA funds to pay for goods received prior to his certification as an MCEA candidate.

Burns did not attend the hearing. His attorney, William Logan, citing the referral to the attorney general, declined to speak to the commission about the substance of the violations. Following the hearing, Logan told reporters his client has cooperated with the ethics commission investigation and will cooperate with the attorney general.

“I think we need to make a finding of violation on many levels,” said ethics commission Chairman Walter McKee, following testimony by auditor Vincent Dinan.

McKee referred to the tone of a letter Burns sent to the commission in March in response to questions about his campaign finances.

“I was struck by the level of ”˜I can’t believe you’re even accusing me,’” McKee said, and referred to Burns’ submission of false documents, “as if we’re not going to figure it out.”

“To compound the false statements, and submit a (false) document ”¦ is mind-boggling,” McKee said. “I certainly have never seen anything at this level in terms of severity.”

Burns, also an Alfred selectman, was elected to the Statehouse in 2010, beating Democrat Diana Waterman by 162 votes for House District 138, which includes Alfred, Limerick, Newfield and Shapleigh. The district had formerly been represented by James Campbell of Newfield.

The audit showed Burns was authorized to spend $9,066 in public money, and determined he transferred $6,711 from his campaign to his personal bank account. In one instance, the auditor pointed out, Burns transferred about $2,600 to his personal bank account, and had he not done so, the personal account would have shown an overdraft of more than $2,500.

In all, the audit determined Burns spent $2,500 in public funds for personal purposes, and that at least $1,295 was falsely reported in campaign finance reports.

When notified his campaign was being audited, Burns provided receipts from three vendors, which he later acknowledged had been fabricated by someone in his campaign, but didn’t say by whom.

And earlier this week, a man whom Burns said had been paid $475 to paint signs for his campaign called the ethics commission to say he never painted the signs, wasn’t paid any money, and did not author a letter purportedly written by him that Burns had submitted to the commission.

McKee asked Dinan, the auditor, if he had ever seen this level of “what appears to be fraud.”

“I can’t think of any,” Dinan responded.

Ethics commission Executive Director Jonathan Wayne said such cases are “extremely rare,” but Burns is not the only legislator to run afoul of campaign finance laws.

According to the Associated Press, former Democratic legislator William Walcott of Lewiston was sentenced in 2008 to six months in jail after admitting he stole public campaign money during Maine House races in 2004 and 2006. A prosecutor at the time said it was the longest sentence for violating the public campaign finance law. Walcott resigned from the Legislature in 2007 during the probe of his campaign finances.

The commission deferred questions about Burns’ mileage reimbursements until their Dec. 19 meeting, so staff can further investigate. He had reported more than $2,000 in mileage reimbursements, which Wayne, the executive director, said significantly exceeded mileage claims from any other candidate. Wayne said a component of the investigation could include asking Wes Phinney, who had written to the commission saying he’d accompanied Burns on many of his campaign trips around the district, to provide a sworn affidavit.

Logan, following the meeting, said he didn’t know if Burns would seek a second term.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 or twells@journaltribune.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.