ELLSWORTH – The new town manager of Etna pleaded no contest Thursday to a charge of criminal invasion of a computer that occurred when he was employed as code enforcement officer in Bar Harbor.

Robert Sharkey of Lamoine did not appear in Hancock County Superior Court. His attorney, Peter Roy of Ellsworth, entered the plea on Sharkey’s behalf.

Judge Andrew Mead fined Sharkey $500. The court considers a plea of no contest to be an admission of guilt.

Sharkey, who was still settling into his new job this week, said he did not tell Etna selectmen before he was hired that a criminal charge was pending against him.

“I didn’t tell them because I didn’t think it was going to court,” Sharkey said Thursday from the Etna town office.

Sharkey resigned as the Bar Harbor code enforcement officer on June 16, 2001, after police launched an investigation into allegations that he hacked into another town employee’s computer because he suspected the co-worker was using his office computer to access Web sites of a personal nature.

“I still don’t think I did anything wrong,” Sharkey said Thursday.

The state police executed a search warrant June 1, 2001, at Sharkey’s home in Lamoine and confiscated his computer. Police also removed computer equipment from the town office, according to officials.

Etna Selectman Leroy Hall declined to comment Thursday evening except to say “we did quite a thorough background check” on Sharkey.

The allegations would not have been detected during a routine background check because the case had not yet been settled.

“As far as anything else, I [am not] going to comment,” Hall said.