An attempt by the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office to sanction a defense attorney sharing information about a police officer who gave false testimony in a drug case has ended in sanctions against the prosecutor’s office instead.

An assignment judge called the prosecutor’s efforts to conceal the officer’s actions frivolous, and ordered the office to pay $3,412 in opposing counsel’s fees. The office appealed, but then not quite two weeks after former Superior Court Judge Yolanda Ciccone took over as Middlesex County prosecutor, that appeal was withdrawn.