MEXICO – A town police officer who was convicted of criminal threatening as part of a plea arrangement in March will learn today if he can resume his job.

Since July 20, when Michael Richard, 57, was arrested and charged with domestic assault and threatening to kill his wife, Pamela Richard of Rumford, Town Manager John Madigan has kept Richard on paid administrative leave with full benefits. Based on a weekly salary of $623.32, Richard has been paid more than $25,000 during the suspension.

Sometime today, the Maine Criminal Justice Academy Board of Trustees is expected to determine if Richard’s license to practice law enforcement in Maine should be decertified, remain intact, or if he should be required to perform remedial actions within a length of time before resuming his job, academy Director John Rogers said Thursday morning.

“It depends if there was any action taken against him by his agency and on the individual himself, if he is remorseful, and they also have to look at extenuating circumstances,” Rogers said.

The academy and its board trains and licenses police and corrections officers to practice law in Maine.

If the board decertifies Richard, state law would prevent Madigan from allowing Richard to resume work as a police officer.

“If the board takes his license, that will be the end of it,” Rogers said.

On March 23, Judge John McElwee in Rumford District Court dismissed a misdemeanor charge of terrorizing against Richard, and a misdemeanor charge of assault was amended to criminal threatening. The judge also struck a probation condition that would have barred Richard from owning or possessing firearms or dangerous weapons. That would have prevented him from resuming both his police job and his side business as a gunsmith.

Richard pleaded no contest and was found guilty of verbally threatening his wife, given a 180-day suspended sentence, and placed on a year’s probation.

Richard’s wife had him arrested by Rumford police the day after he had her served with divorce papers. Then, just nine days before Richard was convicted, the divorce case was dismissed.

Madigan said that he and police Chief Jim Theriault and Mexico Selectman Reggie Arsenault will attend the academy meeting with Richard in a show of support.