Former Allenstown Police Chief James McGonigle is pleading guilty to felony charges that he misused thousands of dollars from the Allenstown Police Department and the New Hampshire Police Cadet Training Academy.

McGonigle, 58, who resigned from his post in Allenstown nearly a year ago, faces a maximum of nine months in prison if a state Superior Court judge accepts a plea deal outlined in a March 16 filing from the defense.

If the judge doesn’t accept the “capped” plea arrangement, which proposes limits to the sentencing, jury selection in McGonigle’s trial would begin Monday, April 2.

McGonigle’s guilty plea would also require state prosecutors to drop a charge that McGonigle stole thousands more dollars from the Allenstown Police Association.

Prosecutor John Gasaway of the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office said he couldn’t comment on any filings from the defense. He also declined comment since the case could still go to trial.

The state recently filed a list of potential witnesses that includes police officials from New Hampshire agencies including Allenstown, Washington, Stratham and Concord, and a handful of former and current Allenstown municipal officials.

McGonigle’s attorney, George Campbell, didn’t return phone calls by press time.

McGonigle was arrested last June after a three-month investigation by the Attorney General’s Office, which contends McGonigle stole nearly $8,000 combined from the three organizations.

He’s accused of two charges of “misapplication of property” for the alleged use of the Allenstown Police Department and the cadet training academy money, and one charge of theft by unauthorized taking, relating to money he allegedly drew from the Allenstown Police Association fund.

All three charges are Class A felonies and carry maximum sentences of seven-and-a-half to 15 years in prison and a maximum fine of $4,000.

The alleged thefts date back to 2000, and range from a $1,455 check from a police association account made out to “cash” to two $5 cash payments for parking tickets.

Prosecutors contend Allenstown Police Department executive secretary Donna Barnett first noticed accounting “irregularities” in the form of $150 of missing cash deposits, and reported the missing cash to current Allenstown Police Chief Shaun Mulholland, who was then a captain, according to court records.

According to an affidavit, Barnett said McGonigle later called her into his office and told her, “I am sorry for the predicament you were put in. If I took the money, I don’t remember doing so.”

According to statements from Barnett, McGonigle also said, “I have been being treated by a doctor for a year now and he says I could have done it,” and “I’m such a disappointment. I’ve disappointed my wife, my boys, my staff.”

In a February 2006 interview, Mulholland told investigators he was in McGonigle’s office when McGonigle “broke down,” apologized for the “situation” and said he “really screwed up big.”

Allenstown selectmen placed McGonigle on paid leave later that day.

About six weeks later, on April 10, 2006, Allenstown selectmen accepted McGonigle’s resignation, the same night McGonigle resigned his longtime seat on the Concord City Council.

McGonigle became Allenstown’s police chief in 1996 after two decades with the Concord police force.