ATTLEBORO - A North Attleboro Electric Department commissioner and three former utility officials will face criminal charges for allegedly misappropriating $4 million in bond fund proceeds.

Attleboro District Court Assistant Clerk Magistrate Mark Sturdy said Tuesday he issued criminal complaints sought by prosecutors during a show cause hearing in November.

David Sweetland, the utility's former general manager, Electric Commissioner Richard Shaw and former Commissioners Bruce Bliss and Bruce Gebhardt face arraignment March 8 on a charge of misappropriation of proceeds of the sale of bond funds.

Lawyers for the men denied during the show cause hearing that they did anything wrong and emphasized that none personally profited from decisions prosecutors claim were improper.

When reached Tuesday for comment, Taunton lawyer Francis O'Boy, who represents Shaw and the two former commissioners, noted the standard of proof during a show cause hearing is lower that the standard of proof necessary at a criminal trial. "I have every expectation that when this case is heard by a judge where the standard of proof is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that my clients will be acquitted," O'Boy said.

O'Boy said the prosecution of his clients was "an attempt to criminalize conduct" by the men "taken on behalf of the ratepayers of North Attleboro."

Boston lawyer, John Hitt, who represents Sweetland, said Tuesday he could not comment because he had not yet seen the complaints. But he said Sweetland was innocent.

"He will be pleading not guilty," Hitt said.

Prosecutors allege town records and an independent audit show the defendants authorized the use of $4 million in bond proceeds to fund an unauthorized, town-owned Internet service provider business in 1998.

The funds were a portion of $12 million approved by town meeting in 1988 for electric system improvements.

The defendants were aware another town meeting vote was needed to use the funds for the Internet business, then Assistant District Attorney Roger Ferris argued during the hearing.

North Attleboro Electric is a non-profit, publicly owned utility governed by a three-member board elected by voters.

The complex case has taken somewhat of a circular route in the legal system over the past couple of years before reaching the Attleboro court.

Former Bristol County District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr. referred the case to the state Attorney General's Office in 2004, saying his office lacked the staff and expertise to investigate the matter. The state Attorney General's Office referred the case to the state Inspector General's Office, which issued a report in 2005 in which it estimated the town lost $8 million, including bond payments, interest and business losses on the failed Internet venture.

The Inspector General's Office, North Attleboro police and the district attorney's office completed an investigation last year and sought the criminal complaints.

During the show cause hearing in November, defense lawyers questioned why prosecutors sought complaints after the district attorney and the attorney general initially passed on the matter.

The defense lawyers also said the six-year statute of limitations in the case has expired.

Misappropriating bond funds is a misdemeanor punishable by a $1,000 fine, one year in jail, or both.

Sweetland was placed on paid administrative leave in August 2004 and resigned in March 2005.

Bliss was not re-elected to the commission in April 2003 after serving 36 years. Gebhardt resigned in 1999 after serving four years as a commissioner. Shaw, a commissioner since 1986, is not seeking re-election this year and his term ends in April.