AUGUSTA, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- Former tax collector entered a not guilty plea to tax fraud charges Thursday afternoon.
A grand jury indicted Claudia Viles on 13 counts of tax fraud. Viles was the Town of Anson's former tax collector. She resigned from her position last week.
Viles is charged with theft, failure to pay Maine state income taxes, failure to make and file income tax returns and tampering with public records.
Viles is also accused of stealing more than $10,000 from the town of Anson between January of 2009 and September of 2014, and failing to file income tax returns each of those years.
The Town of Anson also filed a civil lawsuit claiming Viles misused nearly half a million dollars.
During the court appearance, Viles did not say much, other than to enter a plea and to acknowledge that she understood her arraignment rights. Bail was set at $10,000 unsecured, meaning she does not have to pay unless she fails to comply with conditions of release or does not attend a scheduled court appearance.
"The only condition is that she does not enter the town office as the tax collector, but she's no longer the tax collector. She hasn't been, she resigned, so I wonder why we have to have that condition, but in any event, there are no other conditions," said Walter McKee, Viles' attorney.
According to the Maine Municipal Association, having an elected official accused of stealing money from the town is exceedingly rare. Communication director Eric Conrad said there were 13,000 municipal officials, and there are only one to two cases each year.
"Unfortunately, the people that run for office and even serve their towns in a paid capacity, they do it because they care about their community. They do it, in many cases, for free or for very little money, and everybody feels badly when allegations like this are made," said Conrad.
The MMA provides training on ethics and money handling for towns.
Viles will be in court again October 28th. The civil suit against her is being put on hold until the criminal case is resolved.
