Meet Deborah Potter Cashman. At first glance, you’d think she’s too cute to be a hard-nosed prosecutor. If you happen to be a criminal, you make that mistake at your own peril.

Cashman has spent more than a decade trying to keep your family safe. As a prosecutor with the Androscoggin County District Attorney’s Office, she took on some of the most heinous cases in recent memory. Her objective was always clear: gather evidence and make arguments to put the offender away as long as possible.

These days, Cashman is more likely to go nose-to-nose with a rogue fisherman than a pedophile. In the middle of the year, she moved over to Sagadahoc County. She’s still a prosecutor, but the nature of her job has changed somewhat.

For today’s Face Time, we put Cashman in the witness chair and gave her our best cross-examination.

How long did you prosecute in Androscoggin county? I prosecuted in Androscoggin County from July 1998 to July of 2010, so 12 years. I was a defense attorney in Androscoggin for four years before that, since 1994. (I know, it’s a little known secret, but I was a defense attorney in my younger life.)

What kinds of cases do you deal with in Sagadahoc? I do whatever cases come my way in Sagadahoc and Lincoln counties. I’m actually a floating ADA (assistant district attorney) who works in both Sagadahoc and Lincoln counties. Unlike in Androscoggin, where I did almost exclusively child abuse and sexual assault prosecutions, I now do everything from traffic to thefts and arsons. So far I’ve had trials for burning without a permit, illegally taking oysters from the Damariscotta River by a nonresident, a minor possessing alcohol and an OUI trial. Definitely lots of different crimes from what I saw routinely in Androscoggin.

What’s the coolest part of the job? The coolest part of the job is getting to work on crimes that I’d never prosecuted before (and frankly, crimes that I didn’t even know existed). I’m also learning a lot about Marine Patrol and shellfish warden cases! I’m also getting to know lots of new people, attorneys, law enforcement, different courts. Change is good, but I still miss everyone I worked with in Androscoggin!

If you were on the cast of “Law & Order,” any era, which character would you be? My favorite “Law & Order” character was Abbie Carmichael, played by Angie Harmon. She was my mentor.

Any truth to the rumor you married a big, Irish cop? Absolutely, our own little “Law & Order.” (Can’t you just hear the theme song in the background?)

Did you go see the new Harry Potter movie? No, I’m ashamed to say I haven’t seen any of the Harry Potter movies. The closest that I came to seeing one was when my daughter DVR’d it, that is until she realized that she had recorded it from HBO Latino. Since neither of us knew how to speak Spanish, I still have yet to see a Harry Potter movie. (Did you know we were related, though? Deborah Potter Cashman?)

P.S.: Now if you asked me about the “Twilight” series, book or movie, my answer would be different!

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