A long battle between former Bridgton Selectwoman Joan Gardner and Bridgton resident William Shelley ended in Cumberland County Superior Court Tuesday when Gardner was sentenced to 10 days in jail for writing Shelley a bad check.

“I’m glad that this 3.5-year-long taffy pull with Ms. Gardner is finally over and that the court gave her what she deserved,” Shelley said after the hearing.

Though Gardner had paid Shelley the $5,000 she owed him from a rent dispute dating to 2004, she did so two weeks after the court-ordered deadline of April 15. The deadline was a part of a plea agreement Gardner made in court Feb. 26.

Gardner declined to comment after the hearing, but her attorney Miklos Pongratz listed a number of reasons in court why his client was late with the payment.

Pongratz said Gardner did not meet the April 15 deadline because she was waiting for funds to come from the liquidation of assets in Germany, but these funds did not arrive.

Additionally, Pongratz said that Gardner “had significant medical issues” and was hospitalized during April. Pongratz added that Gardner was going through a divorce and taking medication for severe depression and anxiety. “I believe she went over the deadline for all these reasons described,” Pongratz said.

Stating that his client has no prior criminal history, has paid the money, and has a minor child with special needs who lives with her, Pongratz asked the judge to deny jail time.

Representing the state, Assistant District Attorney Deb Chmielewski called these factors excuses, pointing out that Gardner was able to secure a loan after the deadline passed. Chmielewski recommended 30 days of jail time.

Justice William S. Brodrick’s said Gardner’s “failure to pay on time is inexcusable.” While he said it was very unusual to give jail time on a first offense nonviolent misdemeanor, he stated that these were unusual circumstances. Brodrick denied Pongratz’s request to suspend the sentence, but allowed Gardner to delay her sentence for one week to make arrangements.

Court proceedings began when Shelley took Gardner to small claims court in 2006, seeking $4,400 in back rent and maintenance costs at the home Gardner and her family rented from Shelley and his wife, Bergliot Forster.

In Dec. 2006, the case was dismissed when Gardner agreed to sign a promissory note for a lump sum of $5,000, which was returned for insufficient funds.

Pongratz said that in February 2007 his client wrote a $5,000 check to Shelley under a verbal agreement that he would wait to cash the check until funds were available. Shelley deposited the check, found that there were insufficient funds, and filed a criminal complaint. “Mr. Shelley deposited the check in contradiction to their agreement,” said Pongratz.

In June 2007, Gardner was indicted by a Cumberland County grand jury on a Class C felony charge of negotiating a worthless instrument, as the check was worth more than $1,000.

Since this agreement was verbal, Pongratz said, Gardner did not have a good trial case, adding that she pleaded guilty to a Class D felony charge of negotiating a worthless instrument “to just get this thing done and over with.”

She pleaded guilty at a Feb. 26 hearing and the state reduced the level of the charge and promised to withhold sentencing until Aug. 26 if Gardner paid restitution by April 15.

“All I really wanted was my money. Ms. Gardner dragged this on for years,” said Shelley at the hearing on Tuesday.