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District Attorney seeks $30,000 cruiser, $10,000 expert-witness fund and flags federal-grant risks
Summary
Sagadahoc County District Attorney Natasha Irving asked the Budget Advisory Committee for a new cruiser for a domestic violence investigator, increased trial witness funding and raised concerns about small federal grants (VOCA) that require heavy compliance work and could be vulnerable to federal policy changes.
District Attorney Natasha Irving told the Budget Advisory Committee the DAs office faces equipment and witness-funding needs tied to violent-crime prosecutions and flagged a small but administratively costly federal revenue source that could be at risk under future federal policies.
Irving requested $30,000 to replace a domestic-violence investigator cruiser that she said is more than 10 years old and has more than 100,000 miles. "Its really becoming a money set," she said, and noted the vehicle presented safety and liability concerns after an exhaust pipe fell off in January. She said the cruiser request is in account 2220-53805.
The DA also requested $10,000 for superior-court expert witness fees to support prosecution of serious domestic-violence and strangulation cases, which frequently require medical or forensic experts to explain injuries and medical findings to juries. Irving said the funding would cover fees, travel and lodging for experts called to testify.
Irving described VOCA (Victims of Crime Act) funding that the district has received (about $55,000 split among four counties) and explained the grant carries extensive compliance obligations. "If the presidential administration had a belief that any agency receiving federal funding was, quote, unquote, supporting immigrants, that federal funding could be revoked," she said, expressing concern such conditions could create pressure in prosecutorial decision-making or administrative burdens that outweigh the limited revenue (roughly $13,000 per county). She said some districts have stopped applying for VOCA because of compliance overhead.
She also described other budget items including a request to reallocate a rifle purchase toward vests and body-worn equipment and a $55,400 request related to a new district-attorney case-management database shared across multiple counties.
Ending: Irving urged the committee to weigh public-safety benefits of targeted investments in prosecution and witness support against the administrative cost of small federal grants and asked the committee to consider the cruiser and expert-witness funding as priority items for the DAs office.
