LEWISTON – Prosecutors have again charged a former Auburn police officer with drunken driving after dropping the same charge last fall to gather more evidence.

Assistant District Attorney Richard Beauchesne dropped the earlier charge of criminal OUI against Mitchell Sweetser moments before the start of a jury trial in Androscoggin County Superior Court in Auburn last summer. Beauchesne said he wanted to wait for complete autopsy results of the 25-year-old driver of a pickup truck involved in an Auburn accident with Sweetser. That driver died seven months after the November 2007 crash from accidental pseudoephedrine toxicity. Pseudoephedrine is a drug found in cold remedies.

Autopsy results showed there was “no causal connection” linking the driver’s death to the accident, Beauchesne said.

Sweetser reportedly ran a red light on Hampshire Street. His blood-alcohol level was recorded at 0.19 percent, more than twice the legal driving limit. A sergeant at Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office investigated the crash. A police accident report said Sweetser apparently fell asleep behind the wheel.

Sweetser is scheduled for arraignment at Lewiston District Court on April 22. If convicted of the criminal OUI charge, he could be sentenced up to 364 days in jail.

The accident was referred to the Maine Attorney General’s Office because local prosecutors and local police often work together on criminal cases. Beauchesne, who is assigned to the Oxford County office of the district attorney, typically doesn’t handle cases in Androscoggin County. He is supervised in the Sweetser case by Maine’s Deputy Attorney General William Stokes.

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

Leonard Sharon, an Auburn attorney representing Sweetser, had called into question the accuracy of blood-alcohol tests leading up to Sweetser’s aborted OUI trial last year.

Sharon said his client was placed on administrative leave without pay after the accident and is struggling financially. Sweetser resigned from the police department in November 2008.

A judge ordered the local district attorney’s office to pay the cost of the jury because the prosecutor wasn’t prepared for Sweetser’s trial.