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Apr 16, 2026

by Sabrina Martin/BDN

HANCOCK COUNTY—Waldo County’s top prosecutor may charge Hancock County’s suspended probate judge with criminal perjury after he lied under oath in October.

Earlier this month, a Waldo County judge found that William B. Blaisdell IV, who has faced multiple contempt hearings over overdue child support payments to his ex-wife, perjured himself during his sworn testimony about his finances, according to court documents.

Natasha Irving — district attorney for Waldo, Knox, Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties — said her office is at the “very beginning stages” of reviewing the case. Irving said she was in contact with the Attorney General’s Office, who oversees child support matters through the state’s Department of Health and Human Services.

Blaisdell’s divorce is being handled in Waldo County because of his role as a probate judge in Hancock County.

If Irving’s office does prosecute Blaisdell, he would be facing his first criminal charge; all of his divorce proceedings have been civil matters.

Criminal perjury, a charge brought by a prosecutor, carries a higher burden of proof than a family court factual finding: prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the person knowingly lied under oath.

Perjury is a Class C felony and is punishable by up to five years of incarceration and a $5,000 fine.

Blaisdell, who has been suspended both from practicing law as an attorney and from his part-time job as Hancock County’s probate judge, faced an arrest warrant last month after failing to appear in a Belfast court. He later turned himself in at the Hancock County Jail and posted $16,929 bail, which was the amount of child support he owed.

A Waldo County judge wrote on April 2 that Blaisdell committed perjury when he testified on Oct. 29, 2025, about his depleted brokerage accounts, which he claimed left him unable to pay child support.

Just two days after his sworn testimony, Blaisdell, under a court order, provided his ex-wife’s lawyer with copies of his financial statements, showing he had $166,291 in his Charles Schwab brokerage account and $344,080 in a separate IRA account, according to court documents.

The court found that Blaisdell’s perjured testimony was “an attempt to avoid a suspended thirty-day jail sentence” for being found in contempt of court for not complying with the court’s child support orders.

The court said Blaisdell had a “history of noncompliance,” a “pattern of satisfying outstanding obligations only at the last moment to avoid jail sanctions” and has made “continued attempts to manipulate the Court,” according to an order on the court’s findings.

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This story appears through a media partnership with the Bangor Daily News.

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