AUBURN — A former local police officer pleaded guilty to a drunken driving charge, but will be allowed to withdraw that plea if he stays out of trouble until June.

Mitchell Sweetser, 43, of Auburn would instead plead guilty next year to a misdemeanor charge of driving to endanger, pay a $575 fine and lose his driver's license for 30 days if he doesn't violate the conditions of the deferred disposition, a judge agreed.

Those conditions include:

• No use or possession of alcohol or illegal drugs.

• Submit to search of residence and chemical test upon request of a law enforcement officer.

If Sweetser were to violate any of those terms before June 3, 2010, he could be sentenced on the charge of operating under the influence to which he pleaded guilty last week.

The plea stems from a November 2007 accident on Hampshire Street in Auburn. Sweetser reportedly ran a red light that night. He was charged with criminal OUI. His blood-alcohol content was recorded at 0.19 percent, more than twice the legal driving limit. A police report said Sweetser apparently fell asleep behind the wheel.

Assistant District Attorney Richard Beauchesne dismissed the initial charge moments before going to trial after a jury was picked and assembled outside the courtroom. The 25-year-old driver of the other vehicle in the accident had died unexpectedly seven months after the crash. Beauchesne said he wanted to wait for complete autopsy results before going to trial. He said he wanted to know whether that driver's death was connected in any way to the accident. If it had been, Beauchesne said he might have elevated the charge. But the death had "no causal connection" to the accident, he later learned.

Prosecutors brought back the same charge against Sweetser in March. Sweetser's attorney, Leonard Sharon, argued in Androscoggin County Superior Court in July that prosecutors had taken too long to charge Sweetser again for the same crime.

Justice Thomas Delahanty II didn't dismiss the charge against Sweetser as Sharon had sought, but he limited prosecutors to only the evidence and testimony available at the time of the first trial.

Sharon had flown an expert from Wisconsin to Maine last summer to testify at trial about the state's analysis of Sweetser's blood-alcohol level. At that time, prosecutors had no witness to counter Sweetser's expert, Sharon said. But prosecutors found a rebuttal witness during the seven months between the time it dropped the initial charge against Sweetser and brought back the same charge a second time.

Sharon said Thursday his client had always been interested in pleading guilty to a charge of driving to endanger. It was only after the judge's ruling last month that prosecutors agreed, Sharon said. "It limited their ability to attack our expert," he said.

Sweetser suffered a serious head wound when he crashed through the passenger window. He also sustained a shoulder injury.

A sergeant at the Androscoggin County Sheriff's Department investigated the accident. The state was represented by a prosecutor from the District Attorney's Office in Oxford County because assistant district attorneys at the Androscoggin County office often work with local police. Supervising the prosecutor was Deputy Attorney General Bill Stokes.