Paul Santoro, a first-term commissioner with the Cumberland Fire District and former challenger to Rep. Mia Ackerman in House District 45, covering Cumberland and Lincoln, entered a misdemeanor Alford plea to assault and battery charges in Superior Court Tuesday.
Santoro had been facing felony charges related to accusations he shoved a firefighter into a hot grill last fall.
An Alford plea is a no contest plea of a defendant who proclaims he is innocent of the crime, and differs from the standard nolo contendre (no contest) plea in that it doesn’t state that there are sufficient findings of guilt, according to Santoro’s attorney, John Harwood.