LEWISTON – Former Maine legislator, one-time congressional candidate and now City Councilor Stavros Mendros has pleaded not guilty to four counts of false acknowledgment of oath.

Mendros was charged with the class E misdemeanors stemming from petitions circulated in 2005 supporting An Act to Authorize a Tribal Commercial Track and Slot Machines in Washington County.

Mendros represents Ward I on the Lewiston City Council.

Mendros was due in 8th District Court on Wednesday morning, but his attorney, Daniel Billings, entered the pleas by letter. Neither Billings nor Mendros appeared in court to answer the charges, a clerk said.

The Maine Attorney General’s Office lodged the complaint against Mendros, who is working on another petition effort, this time to overturn a new term-limit law in Maine.

In his capacity as a notary public, two years ago, Mendros, on four separate occasions, allegedly “did willfully and falsely acknowledge the oath of circulator” even though the circulators of those petitions didn’t make their oaths in his presence.

Gov. John Baldacci vetoed the Passamaquoddy Indian Tribe casino measure last spring, which means the initiative will go to statewide referendum and should be on ballots this fall.

The four petition circulators named in the complaint, whose oaths Mendros allegedly failed to witness, are: Thomas Lohnes of Sanford; David Dutch of Shapleigh; David M. Hall of St. Albans and Jacqueline Stowe of Lewiston. They circulated petitions in Waterboro, Biddeford, Bangor and Lewiston.

Billings notified the court that he expected from prosecutors evidence, including written statements, that might be used against Mendros at a trial, along with a written record of grand jury proceedings, if possible.

Mendros served two terms in the Maine House of Representatives representing part of Lewiston. He served on the Joint Standing Judiciary Committee.

In 2002, Mendros unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District.

Class E crimes are punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

– The Associated Press contributed to this report.