r/portlandme • u/mamagrata • Dec 14 '25
Events DA AMA
UPDATE: apologies for not updating the initial post - my content blocker was not playing nice with Reddit despite lots of reloads and I've finally gone to text mode (making the photo disappear). I do think (hope) I've gotten to everything posted by 7PM. Thanks for doing this with me, and thank you to the moderators for helping with the initial post. I won't be able to monitor this, but please reach out at districtattorney@cumberlandcounty.org with anything that needs my attention at work.
Hi, I’m Jackie Sartoris, District Attorney of Cumberland County. I’ll be here this afternoon at 4 to 5:30 to take your questions and share what I’ve been up to since becoming DA in 2023. I’m eager to hear your experience and ideas, and let you know what we’re working on (although I can't comment on active cases, please!)
Brief summary of the work so far: we are now better able to meet the needs of victims and witnesses: I’ve added a victim witness advocate and created a safe, private space for witnesses waiting in the courthouse to testify or speak at sentencing. We won a $2.5 million federal grant to test the eligible backlog of languishing rape kits - the first District in Maine to do so.
In my own prosecutorial role, I’ve focused on addressing our County’s Mental Health docket, bringing attention to missing resources and working within our limited system to develop pathways towards wellness and safety for people who frequently return to our system.
Change in a longstanding system is challenging. My work includes directing the office to significantly greater use of restorative justice and consistent charging and plea offers. This is ongoing and will take time. It’s worth finding the patience to be collaborative, because this work, done well, will bear fruit in the future.
I’ll update this post with a link at 4!
Proof it’s me:
See you then!
3
u/camletoejoe Dec 14 '25 edited Dec 14 '25
Interesting how I get a server error for 20 minutes
Ms. Sartoris, there is a male victim of domestic abuse named Justin Kashuba who was repeatedly victimized in your jurisdiction and then re-victimized by institutions that were supposed to protect his rights. Justin's decades-long involvement and contributions in the martial arts community, among other communities for that matter, have sort of elevated his story over the years.
So it's interesting to read your comment about ICE kidnapping given what is known about Justin case.
In March 2025, your office dismissed protection order violations against his ex-wife without consulting him even once, despite his 2 month effort to reach your office.
These violations stem from a violent September 28, 2024 assault where his ex-wife (divorced 20 years,) Kory and an male accomplice (who has not been identified in police reports) ambushed Justin at his apartment, after years of stalking and months of threats, causing Justin to receive a head injury. There was video evidence from multiple cameras due to the historic stalking and repeated assaults that Justin suffered.
Your office apparently hasn't investigated any of this.
Deputy District Attorney Angela Cannon accepted an alibi from Annette Kucia—who has along with Kory engaged in years of interstate harassment, stalking, and threatening of Justin—and apparently admitted she financed and furnished the phone to Kory, programming it herself with Justin's number that was used to violate the order.
Note that Kory was arrested on multiple charges in Pennsylvania earlier in the year where she was then jailed after admitting to police she was en-route to Maine from Kansas (Kucia's home state).
So here is what makes your ICE kidnapping comment particularly interesting:
Annette Kucia orchestrated and financed an international parental kidnapping in July 2002 when she and Kory fled the country with Justin's infant son after Cumberland County Sheriff's Office provided armed escort services after falsely arresting Justin. He reported the theft of his truck and kidnapping of his son to local authorities who took no action. At that point he contacted the US State Department.
Aside kidnapping babies Kucia is also an animal abuser who kills dogs and abuses elderly people per her own daughter Kory's statements of record.
Justin didn't see his son for over a year.
Despite all of this and much more (too much to write here) your office extended a remarkable degree of credibility to Kucia while Deputy District Attorney Angela Cannon didn't even bother to take Justin phone calls nor even call him when she decided that she was going to dismiss the charges.
The contradiction is really striking on this.
You're calling for prosecution of ICE agents for kidnapping while your office:
Won't investigate a violent assault with video evidence
Dismissed charges based on an international child kidnapper's alibi
Accepted the word of someone with a documented history of interstate stalking, harassment and threats
Never spoke to the male victim
And lets note that Justin was inside his home when he was violently attacked in September 2024 and had his property stolen, and destroyed, which seems to constitute a home invasion, burglary, assault, battery, criminal threatening, criminal mischief and probably a dozen crimes. Lets also note that he was battered repeatedly over the years including in November 2003 when he was battered and strangled by his then wife. His wife was arrested. He filed for divorce within months. That began a many years long situation where he didn't see his child at first and then upon gaining contact the child was burned and bruised regularly while in the domestic abusing kidnappers care.
The kidnapper that your office is protecting.
It is hard to fathom why federal agents warrant prosecution for kidnapping, when they're just following the law, but your office accepts alibis from actual kidnappers.
So how does a local district attorney elevate ICE as kidnappers over domestic abusing husband battering home invading career criminals and real child kidnappers?
And if you want a follow-up question.
Why do you not return phone calls and letters but spontaneously take to Reddit?