MAINE, USA — In September, a Somerset County judge took the unusual step of ruling that the office of District Attorney Maeghan Maloney engaged in “bad faith” when it failed to hand over evidence to a defendant in a drug case.

The case had been pending for more than a year against Derek Sicard, 33, of Ludlow, Massachusetts. But Sicard had yet to receive all the evidence — called discovery — that he and his attorney needed to prepare his defense, Judge Erika Bristol wrote in a Sept. 12 ruling.

“At hearing, the State had no update as to what was in its possession, what had been requested or provided, and what had not been requested or provided,” she wrote. “The Court, therefore, has no alternative than to find bad faith on the part of the State.”

The ruling was a rare rebuke for something

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