WINDHAM — An inmate at the women’s prison in Windham has filed a lawsuit over what she claims was chronic harassment and assault at the hands of a transgender prisoner.
Katie Mountain, the 41-year-old inmate who went public with her complaints last month, has filed suit against two prison administrators and her former cellmate, Andrea Balcer.
Named in the suit are MDOC Commissioner Randall Liberty and Warden Ben Beal. A 30-page complaint was filed on Friday by attorney Cynthia Dill.
Mountain and nearly a dozen other women at the prison have reported they were repeatedly groped, harassed and assaulted by Balcer, a convicted double murderer who is a transgender woman.
According to prison records, Balcer is 6-foot-1 and 310 pounds. Now 27 years old, she was 17 when she was charged in 2016 with killing her parents and the family dog in Winthrop. She began going by Andrea shortly before her trial began.
Several prisoners at the women’s prison have reported being cornered, forcibly kissed and sexually propositioned by Balcer, who has been held in the facility for at least a year.
Since those accusations came to light, several people have come forward to investigate the matter, including Dill; Jennifer Gingrich, director of New England Women’s Solidarity; and at least one state representative.
Mountain said that after she was repeatedly tormented by Balcer, she refused to go back into a cell with the inmate. She was punished for that act, she says, which Dill highlights often in her complaint.
“Mountain also alleges that the conditions at the Maine Correctional Center — granting the right of predatory men like Balcer to house in the women’s pod, forcing Mountain to bunk with him despite his repeated threats, sexual assault, and sexual harassment, the failure to protect Mountain’s rights on the basis of her sex, the religious discrimination, retaliation for speaking up, solitary confinement, gas lighting — all of it — constitutes cruel and unusual punishment,” according to the suit.
Mountain said that when she complained to a prison captain about being placed in segregation for speaking out against Balcer, she was told she should have stayed in her cell, even if it meant being further harassed or sexually assaulted.
Andrea Balcer speaks during an interview at Kennebec County Jail in Augusta in 2019. (Joe Phelan/Staff Photographer)
This lawsuit also brings a private cause of action for damages including punitive damages against Balcer for assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
“It’s unlawful, cruel, discriminatory, false and an affront to the dignity of Katie Mountain and all women at the Maine Correctional Center who Balcer has sexually assaulted, harassed to be compelled to ‘affirm’ his gender identity, amounting to compelled government orthodoxy,” Dill wrote in her complaint. “There is no legitimate government interest in ‘affirming’ Andrew Balcer’s gender identity. It’s an effort by the Maine Department of Correction to enforce viewpoint gender orthodoxy in thought and speech.”
The inmates report that Balcer has been taking the lowest possible amount of estrogen while in the prison in order to remain housed with the women. According to Dill’s complaint, 10% of trans-identified men in Maine prisons have transitioned surgically. Balcer is not one of them.
Dill’s complaint demands a jury trial and injunctive relief. According to the complaint, Mountain has been in segregation since she complained about Balcer. Mountain herself said she is only allowed out of her cell a couple hours a day. She is not allowed to go to the gym or library and is allowed just one book a week.
“Mountain is suffering extreme physical and psychological distress,” according to the complaint. “She is deprived of liberty, freedom of speech and thought, freedom to exercise her religious beliefs, privileges, and dignity because she is a woman and women are not protected from discrimination on the basis of sex at the Maine Correctional Center.
“Andrew Balcer continues to enjoy the full panoply of perks, amenities, and privileges of living in the Women’s Center,” according to the complaint, “plus he enjoys special treatment, privileges and status because of his sex and gender identity.”
Mountain is seeking damages, “nominal, compensatory and punitive,” in her suit.
In her complaint, Dill lays out nine counts against the two prison officials. The complaints include allegations of cruel and unusual punishment, violations of Mountain’s freedom of speech, violations of the freedom of religion clause of the First Amendment, and violations of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
The complaint also charges Balcer with assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Balcer has not responded to requests for an interview.
In an interview earlier in the week, Mountain said she repeatedly tried going through proper channels at the prison to get something done about the situation. She requested meetings with the warden several times. In every case, Mountain said, she was denied help and frequently punished while Balcer continued living in the general population.
“Their only concern was for the transgender inmate,” she said. “They never stopped to think what we were going through. They had to know; they just didn’t give a damn.”
Mountain said that before she spoke up about the situation, she was eligible for early release or home confinement. Those privileges were lost, she said, after her story went public.
“I’ve been through a lot of hell here since speaking out, honestly,” Mountain said.
In prison for probation violations, her release date is in June.
Last week, the U.S. Justice Department announced it would investigate Maine’s practice of housing biological men in women’s prison, citing the Balcer case specifically.
An MDOC spokesperson on Friday did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit. Previously, the spokesperson said the prison takes seriously all reports of assault or harassment and that all such complaints are investigated.
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