PORTLAND – A former Maine Warden Service pilot today is asking the Maine Supreme Judicial Court to reverse his conviction for bilking the state out of more than $14,000.

Jason Bouchard, 39, of Lincoln was found guilty in April 2003 by a Penobscot County jury after a weeklong trial.

He was sentenced to nine months in jail with all but 12 days suspended on two counts of theft and to five years, all suspended, on one count of misuse of entrusted property. He also was ordered to pay $14,632 in restitution to the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Bouchard was convicted of buying gas for the state-owned plane from the aviation firm he owned and operated at the Lincoln Regional Airport after his supervisors repeatedly ordered him not to do so, according to testimony presented at his trial. He bought airplane fuel at wholesale rate but sold it to DIF&W at retail prices, running the reimbursement through a business associate, prosecutors successfully argued.

Peter Bickerman of Augusta, Bouchard’s attorney for his appeal, is expected today to argue that there was insufficient evidence for a guilty verdict and that the court erred in:

. Failing to exclude certain evidence.

. Failing to merge the two theft counts.

. Its instructions to the jury.

. Ordering Bouchard to pay restitution.

The court could overturn Bouchard’s conviction on all counts, Bickerman said Monday. It also could affirm the conviction on the charges, but rule that the judge erred in his instructions to the jury and order that a new trial be held.

Other cases the court will consider this week include:

. The appeal by a Bar Harbor couple of the state Board of Environmental Protection’s denial of their application for a permit to build a 95-foot pier in Eastern Bay. In March 2003, Superior Court Justice Andrew Mead upheld the BEP’s decision to deny Anthony and Erin Uliano’s application for a construction permit.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court, however, last October reversed the board’s decision in a similar case allowing a Pennsylvania woman to construct a 90-foot pier on Long Cove.

. The appeal of a Lubec woman from a judgment entered in the state’s favor in Kennebec County Superior Court. Virginia Blake, a former mental retardation caseworker for the Department of Behavioral and Developmental Services, sued her former boss two years ago alleging the department had violated the Maine Whistleblower’s Act.

Her attorney, Brett Baber of Bangor, is expected to argue Wednesday that the court erred in ruling she had not presented enough evidence of a hostile work environment or enough evidence the she had suffered adverse employment action for the case to go to trial.

. The appeal of a judgment by the Department of Transportation entered in Penobscot County Superior Court determining that an employee negligently operated a snowplow that was driving in the wrong traffic lane that apparently harmed a Brewer man.