The district attorney for Lincoln, Sagadahoc, Waldo and Knox Counties is coming under fire from members of the Lincoln County budget advisory committee who are unhappy with her approach to crime. Natasha Irving, who was first elected in 2018, relies on restorative justice solutions in all but the most serious criminal cases. And the budget committee has decided to signal its disapproval by recommending that her department be defunded in the next fiscal year.
Irving's original 2026 budget request from Lincoln County was for $507,665.
But at a meeting on October 17, Lincoln County's budget advisory committee voted 5-to-1 to defund the DA's office by allocating a single dollar to support it.
Lincoln County Commissioner Evan Goodkowski does not serve on the committee, which is made up of local select board members, but he did attend their recent meeting.
"And they repeated several times that the commissioners obviously aren't going to approve a budget allocation of $1, because we're required by statute to pass a budget. We're not going to obviously pass a budget of a dollar," Goodkowski said. "But they wanted to send a message in their capacity as the advisory committee, just for this exact purpose. To get people to talk."
Not long after she was elected in 2018, Irving sent a memo to law enforcement agencies to let them know that her office would follow through on a campaign promise to seek restorative justice solutions in all but the most serious criminal cases. Restorative justice is an approach that focuses on helping people convicted of crimes repair harm and take accountability for their actions. It also offers alternatives to incarceration and has been shown to reduce recidivism.
Goodkowski says the message committee members like Nobleboro Selectman Richard Powell seemed to want to send, is that they think as a prosecutor, Irving is too lenient.
"That's more or less the critique, is that many people end up being repeat offenders," Goodkowski said. "But they're mostly focused on people that are suspected or convicted of domestic violence."
Reached by phone, Powell said he and other local officials have "concerns" about how domestic violence cases have been handled, but he declined to go into any details about the budget recommendation, specific cases, or Irving's record.
Though the committee's budget recommendation is widely viewed as a symbolic act of protest, the district attorney does not see it that way. Irving is the first woman to hold the office for the four counties, and she says when she found out about the vote, she was appalled.
"It's a reckless and ignorant action," said Irving. "And we should be shocked as Maine citizens, people in Lincoln County should be shocked that folks that have been appointed to the budget committee would actively seek to defund law enforcement."
Irving noted that most of the department's county budget goes towards support staff; it doesn't pay for her wages, or for the deputy DA or assistant DA, who are all state employees. And she says slashing her budget would have major consequences.
"If we shut down the district attorney's office, we will not be able to prosecute criminal cases that come in, people who are arrested for domestic violence, people who are arrested for kidnapping, people who are arrested for OUI, vehicular manslaughter, those cases will go uncharged," Irving said. "That is anarchy."
As far as the critique that Irving is too soft on crime, she said, "If you look at the statistics, if you talk to the organizations that do the work statewide regarding domestic violence, you'll see that our numbers in Lincoln County are on par with the rest of the state. If they can point to one piece of data, or one case that we mishandled, I would love to talk to them. But there is a reason that they don't have specifics, and it is because this is about how they feel about me."
According to Lincoln County's administrator, Carrie Kipfer, the budget recommendations will be discussed at an informational meeting on Thursday October 30 at 1 p.m. After that, the budget will go back to the county commissioners for adjustments, and a final budget will be approved by the end of December.
District Attorney Natasha Irving said if Lincoln County does accept the recommended budget of one dollar, she'll file a lawsuit.
"If they think that I'm soft in the courtroom," Irving said, "then I don't think they would think that after we went toe to toe."
