DOVER-FOXCROFT – In an unusual move, a Piscataquis County Superior Court judge this week rejected a recommended sentence – the result of a plea bargain – for a St. Albans man charged with four burglaries in Parkman last year during which a dog was killed and another seriously injured.

Mark Meech, 33, had pleaded guilty this week to four counts of burglary and one count each of eluding an officer and cruelty to animals in exchange for a plea-bargained sentence of six years in prison, with all but two years suspended, and probation for four years. Under the proposal, the court would have dismissed a count of operating a motor vehicle after revocation.

Meech, however, withdrew his plea after Justice Jeffrey Hjelm called too light the sentence proposed by Piscataquis County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy and Meech’s attorney, David Gray of Dover-Foxcroft.

In view of the charges, Hjelm said he would impose a sentence of eight years, with all but four years suspended, and probation of four years.

Because it was such a rare departure from past practice and because Hjelm’s sentence would double Meech’s proposed jail term, Gray said Wednesday he advised Meech to withdraw his plea.

Gray said because Hjelm’s sentence was such a “substantial departure from the plea agreement” and because the change placed Meech under a lot of pressure, he felt it was important to give his client time to reconsider.

Meech is expected to enter a new plea on the charges today.

A second man charged in the burglaries, Travis S. Crowley, 20, of Hartland, pleaded guilty this week to four counts of burglary and one count each of aggravated criminal mischief, assault and failure to appear. His sentencing was continued until Oct. 5.

Meech and Crowley are accused of burglarizing homes on the Lander and Crow Hill roads in Parkman on Aug. 14, 2000. A springer spaniel was shot and killed and another spaniel seriously injured at one of the homes that was burglarized.

A resident in the area noticed a suspicious vehicle at a home and reported it to police. Piscataquis County Deputy Jamie Kane, who was responding to an earlier break-in, chased the two suspects, who were in a 1986 Chevrolet Caprice, until they drove the car into a cornfield in the Somerset County town of Cambridge and then fled on foot.

The Caprice was registered to Meech. The two men were apprehended that evening as they were hitchhiking not far from the Melody Lane Road intersection on Route 23.

Police said cash, compact discs, VCR tapes and tools were taken from the three homes on the Lander Road and one home on the Crow Hill Road.