NORTH ATTLEBORO - In a stunning turn of events, former North Attleboro Electric General Manager David Sweetland was found innocent Thursday after a surprise videotape showed town officials were not misled about funding for a failed Internet service.

And the judge who heard the case admonished the town for allowing the charges to be brought to trial.

The videotape, discovered by defense attorneys Wednesday, proved that Sweetland informed selectmen in 1998 that $4 million in bond money would be used to pay for both dial-up Internet service and fiber optic cable projects.

Sweetland was on trial in Fall River District Court on charges of misspending the bond money to start a dial-up Internet service at North Attleboro Electric in a project that was not authorized by town meeting. Sweetland's attorneys argued that the dial-up Internet service was part of the larger fiber optic project, which was authorized at town meeting.

The videotape shows Sweetland describing the projects to selectmen in 1998 as occurring simultaneously and being paid for with the bond money. Prosecutors and representatives from the North Attleboro Police Department and state Inspector General's office said they had not seen the tape prior to Thursday's hearing.

After viewing the videotape, Assistant District Attorney Paul Machado said the case would not go forward.

"There may be some technical noncompliance issues, but the district attorney's office is not in a position to say that this rises to the level of criminal activity," he said.

Judge Christopher Welch found Sweetland not guilty of the charge and criticized the town for withholding crucial evidence.

"The most horrifying thing is when a person walks into the office and is unjustly accused," Welch said. "Though no fault of the attorneys, detectives and inspector general's office, someone withheld this tape. This tape would have ended this case before it started."

After the verdict, Sweetland referred all questions to his lawyer, John Hitt, who said: "Mr. Sweetland was innocent and we're glad we had a chance to show his innocence. This is a case that never should have been brought in the first place. The judge got it exactly right in his comments."

A seven-minute segment of the video shows Sweetland and former Electric Commissioners Richard Shaw, Bruce Bliss and Bruce Gebhardt at a Nov. 5, 1998, meeting with the board of selectmen. Then-Selectman Mark Fisher asks Sweetland to describe how the $4 million in bond money will be spent.

Sweetland says: "We're doing two things at once," then describes how the department will offer dial-up Internet service while it works on a project to string fiber optic cable in town.

Fisher says on tape the project is "economical."

After about seven minutes, the sound kicks out for the remainder of the video, though Sweetland and commissioners can be seen talking for about 15 more minutes. Selectwoman Marjorie Kraskouskas can be seen leaving the table and attorneys theorize that she may have accidentally pulled out the microphone wire, which hung beneath the desk. An interesting set of circumstances led to the tape's discovery.

At the start of the trial, defense attorney William Cintolo noticed a videotape on the prosecution's table. As it turned out, that tape was not related to Sweetland's trial and was for another case for which Machado had a pre-trial conference earlier in the day.

However, the sight of the video sparked a search by defense attorneys, who put out the word they were interested in seeing any videotapes relating to the bond money.

They learned that attorneys working on a separate civil case relating to the bond money had a video that might be of interest. The town had supplied the 1998 videotape in response to a request for records in its civil case against auditing firm Grant Thornton.

The town is suing the company for negligence, arguing that auditors should have caught the fact that the bond money was allegedly not spent properly.

Cintolo received a copy of the videotape from those attorneys on Wednesday.

Welch was critical of the town for not providing the tape to attorneys and authorities working on the case against Sweetland.

"Someone in the town decided to hold back what may or may not be a critical piece of evidence," Welch said. "I might think they'd have a case against them. Why did this tape suddenly coming up in the civil case? Which is more important, money or freedom?"

Machado said his request for records did not specifically include videotapes.

"I'm not sure it was necessarily withheld," he said. "It was apparently in the public domain."

Sweetland's co-defendants, the three former electric commissioners, were scheduled to be tried separately at Fall River District Court at a later date. Machado said the district attorney's office needs to review all of its information before deciding whether to proceed with or drop that case.