PARIS — West Paris Fire Chief Norman P. St. Pierre pleaded guilty Monday to shooting a bear and removing no trespassing signs from a Hartford property last fall. 

In exchange for the plea, entered in Oxford County Unified Court, prosecutors will drop all charges against St. Pierre if he does not commit any crimes over the next year.

St. Pierre, 53, of Hartford will not be allowed to hunt for a year and has forfeited both the firearm used to shoot the bear and the harvested meat.

Prosecutors said St. Pierre removed no trespassing signs, entered a Hartford property without permission and shot the bear within 100 yards of a residential building this past November. 

The incident occurred during bear-hunting season.

St. Pierre pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal counts of discharging a weapon near a dwelling, trespassing and keeping a loaded firearm in a motor vehicle. Those charges are the least severe under the Maine Criminal Code. 

He also pleaded guilty to criminal mischief — which carried the possible sentence of a year in prison and a $2,000 fine — and a civil charge of failing to tag a bear. 

He will have to pay a $50 monthly fee, $600 in total, to cover administrative supervision fees during his deferred disposition. 

St. Pierre has been fire chief for at least a decade and is a former Hartford fire warden.

The West Paris Board of Selectmen is scheduled to meet in executive session Thursday evening and is expected to talk about St. Pierre’s plea. 

ccrosby@sunjournal.com