Harvard resident Richard Powderly III will go on trial before a jury in February, after a district court judge rejected his offer to serve one year of probation in exchange for a guilty plea. Powderly, 40, of 308 Still River Road, is charged with three counts of larceny and three counts of forgery of a check. The charges stem from three incidents in 2010.

In the first case, according to police reports from November 2010, Powderly is accused of stealing, signing, and cashing three checks from the Harvard Firefighters Association. Powderly's father, Richard Powderly Jr., was the treasurer of the Harvard Firefighters Association and the only person authorized to sign association checks, the police report says.

Also in November 2010, police records show, a Winchendon woman told police Powderly had falsely represented himself as a mortgage broker employed by Primerica and had offered to refinance her mortgage within three weeks. According to police, the woman paid Powderly more than $1,000 to help her refinance her mortgage.

The third criminal complaint, police say, was brought by a Sterling man who said that he had paid $800 to Powderly on Nov. 12, 2010, as a deposit on the purchase of a car Powderly was selling. According to the man's statement to the court, Powderly cashed the check on Nov. 15, but on Nov. 19 told him he had decided not to sell the vehicle after all, and that he would return the money. After receiving no money following repeated attempts to get a response from Powderly about the issue, the man filed a criminal complaint with the court.

In court on Friday, Oct. 28, of this year, Powderly tendered a guilty plea to all counts in exchange for one year in jail suspended to one year supervised probation. According to court documents, the prosecution countered with two years in jail for the larceny charges, plus six months after that for the forgery charges.

Judge Andrew Mandell rejected Powderly's tender, court documents say, and offered one year in jail for all counts. Powderly then withdrew his plea and will instead go before a jury.