Just as Halloween started early for Tom Connolly, so apparently has Christmas.

On Monday, the eccentric attorney struck a charitable holiday agreement with prosecutors, stemming from his Oct. 31 arrest next to I-295 in South Portland. Connolly, a former Democratic candidate for governor, was draped in an Osama bin Laden costume, brandishing a toy rifle, and waving a sign at passing traffic.

A South Portland police officer came close to shooting him, according to court records. His actions were intended as a protest of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which the attorney has now admitted was, well, shortsighted.

“Despite considerable planning for my recent anti-TABOR protest on Halloween, I overlooked some circumstances that resulted in unintended consequences and reaction which I did not foresee, but should have foreseen,” said Connolly, in a runaway favorite for “Understatement of the Year.”

Under this agreement, Connolly will perform community service and donate money to charity in return for charges of criminal threatening, terrorizing and reckless conduct being dropped. It’s a sensible compromise, and rightfully prevents his inevitable trial from devolving into a dramatic courtroom spectacle about the merits of his “message.”

Connolly’s bombast is as trademark as his fishing cap. But a penchant for outrageousness should not have spared him from punishment for his behavior on Halloween, and Monday’s agreement should be considered an early Christmas gift from the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office.

Fighting these charges would have done more harm than good. Free speech is a cherished tenet of American civil liberty, but even Thomas Jefferson would have cringed if the First Amendment were invoked to defend a poorly premeditated political stunt by a busy highway.

It’s pleasing, however, to see a stirring moral punctuate this tragicomedy. Realistic toy weapons are a public concern, in the hands of everyone from the unknowing child at school to the unhinged lawyer by the road. In this zero-tolerance world, a misinterpreted gesture could be the difference between life or death.

“One of the good things that could come out of this is that it will raise consciousness,” Connolly told the Portland Press-Herald. “You have to be a little more careful and maybe we can avoid some poor child being shot in Waldoboro or Portland or Lewiston, and what a great thing that would be.”

We couldn’t agree more, sir.

Thanks, at least, for that.