Female Inmate at Women’s Prison Files Lawsuit Over Assault by Trans-Identified Male Transfer

By Genevieve Gluck

A female inmate in Maine’s only women’s prison has filed a lawsuit alleging harassment and assault committed against her by a trans-identified male transfer. Katie Mountain has filed the lawsuit against two prison officials and her former cellmate, a double-murderer named Andrew Balcer, who now goes by the feminine name “Andrea.” Balcer is serving a 40-year prison sentence in the women’s prison at Windham for the grisly murder of his parents, a crime that was defended in court on the basis of Balcer’s self-declared “gender identity.”

Mountain is a 41-year-old married Baptist woman from Dexter, and is currently serving a 10-month sentence for a probation violation. On April 3, Mountain filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of housing males with female inmates in Maine.

Mountain first went public with her allegations against Balcer last month by sending a letter to a local news outlet detailing the abuse she had faced while housed with Balcer. Mountain claimed that he sexually assaulted her and had been a “terrorizer” who targeted female inmates.

“She’s shoved me against the bathroom wall and tried to force me to kiss her,” Mountain wrote in her letter, using feminine pronouns for the convicted killer. “I would wake up to her just staring at me and then making comments like: ‘If you don’t wake up, it’s because I smothered you with a pillow.’”

Mountain said she went to her sergeant “six times” and her unit manager at least twice in an effort to be moved, and that correctional staff did not offer her a new arrangement until she physically refused to re-enter the cell with Balcer.

Now, Mountain’s lawsuit is seeking to challenge a state policy which requires inmates to be housed according to a self-declared “gender” rather than by their biological sex.

“Female inmates at the MCC face two horrific choices: bunk with Andrew Balcer—a violent, ‘intact’ male—and endure sexual assault and harassment, or face discipline and segregation for complaining,” reads the complaint.

“Katie Mountain, who is 5 feet 2 inches tall, was forced to bunk with Balcer, a 6-foot, 310-pound male,” the lawsuit states. “While bunking together, Balcer subjected Mountain to graphic sexual stories, trapped her in a bathroom to forcibly kiss her, and made repeated threats of rape and impregnation. Balcer talked disturbingly about putting a baby in her, and pointing to his crotch said, ‘look at my ten-man tent’ and ‘we can’t go for a ride, but you can ride me.’”

From the lawsuit filed by Katie Mountain.

According to the lawsuit, Mountain became so distressed as a result of the sexual abuse that she had difficulty eating and sleeping. In a heightened state of anxiety, she told prison officials she would do anything, including physical self-defense, in order to protect herself from Balcer.

Mountain says that she was then punished by prison officials by being transferred to segregation and denied medication, clean clothes, and hygiene supplies. It was at this point that Mountain decided to write to The Maine Wire, a local news outlet, describing her situation. After taking her complaint public, she says she experienced further retaliation from the Department of Corrections (DOC).

Mountain’s complaint also details additional disturbing allegations against Balcer from other female inmates.

Female inmate “MR” gave other women therapeutic back massages to ease tension and promote wellness. One day, Balcer offered to give MR a massage and while MR was lying face down, Balcer rubbed down her sides to touch her breasts and rubbed her backside in a sexually inappropriate manner. MR was very uncomfortable and offended and made a complaint about it to DOC staff.

MR was then placed in segregation, where the doors and windows do not open. She was pressured by correctional staff to apologize under threat of not being able to leave.

In a second case mentioned by the lawsuit, female inmate “MS” was subjected to sexually harassing comments from Balcer and another trans-identified male inmate. MS is a sex trafficking victim serving time for a non-violent drug charge.

Another female inmate, “DF,” complained of her time being forced to share a room with Balcer while he was exhibiting disturbing sexual behavior.

DF explains that Balcer had a crocheted doll, and would lick the doll suggestively while asking DF if she wanted it done to her. DF also says that she once woke up to see Balcer standing in the cell naked, and that he later remarked “imagine what I could do to you in your sleep.”

From the lawsuit filed by Katie Mountain.

One anonymous woman quoted in the suit says that all inmates who speak out about sexual abuse at the hands of males in the facility are sent to segregation while the men are allowed to stay in the Women’s Center, adding, “we are being punished because of our complaints.”

Mountain also alleges that the conditions at the Maine Correctional Center — including forcing Mountain to bunk with Balcer despite his repeated threats, sexual assault, and sexual harassment — constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

The legal claim argues that the gender identity policy implemented by the DOC in January of 2023, which was nearly three months after Balcer was transferred to the female estate, “removed previous considerations regarding a prisoner’s physical stature, tendency toward predatory behavior, or the safety of other prisoners.”

Initially approved in 2021, the policy states that an inmate’s “gender identity” must be “respected and acknowledged, irrespective of anatomy or physique, including ensuring housing and search procedures that are consistent with the gender identity and for all staff and representatives of the correctional or detention facility use the pronouns, titles and names as identified by the person.”

Andrew ‘Andrea’ Balcer. Source: Maine Department of Corrections

“Maine ‘gender identity’ and ‘gender affirmation’ laws and policies empower and enable
Andrew Balcer to prey on and terrorize female inmates in the Maine Correctional Center and the
Commissioner and Warden know it and are doing nothing about it,” the complaint states.

Balcer is currently serving a 40-year sentence for murdering his parents and their dog.

In 2018, Balcer was convicted of fatally stabbing his own parents, Alice and Antonio Balcer, inside their home in Winthrop. The murders took place on Halloween in 2016, and at the time, he was 17 years old. After committing the double homicide, during which he also killed the family dog, Balcer was recorded confessing during a 911 phone call. He told the dispatcher that he stabbed his mother in her back when she reached to give him a hug goodnight.

“She went to hug me and I just put my knife in her back,” Balcer can be heard saying in the recording. When the dispatcher asked him why he did it, he said he didn’t know.

Balcer then told the dispatcher that his father tried to intervene after hearing his mother’s screams for help.

Laughing, the teen remarked, “I stabbed the (expletive) out of him.”

The Maine Chief Medical Examiner testified in court that Alice Balcer had been stabbed nine times, while the father, Antonio, was stabbed 13 times.

Police Officer Tyler Nadeau arrived on the scene to arrest Andrew, and described how the teen appeared unapologetic for the brutal killings. “He was just kind of smiling,” said Nadeau. “He was kind of joking with me that his brother would need help [for what he witnessed].”

Balcer ultimately pled guilty to two counts of intentional or knowing murder and one count of aggravated cruelty to animals. Prosecutors played a nearly three-hour long taped confessional Balcer gave to detectives, in which he said he had no mental health struggles or issues with his parents, according to local media.

Following his conviction in 2018, Balcer was moved from the Maine State Prison to the women’s section of the Maine Correctional Institute in Windham. In November 2022, having received a diagnosis of gender dysphoria after claiming a gender identity while incarcerated, Balcer was quietly relocated.

During his trial, Dr. Debra Baeder, a forensic psychologist who evaluated Balcer, said he had been suffering from depression and “significant gender confusion.”

Dr. Baeder argued in court that Balcer had expressed “gender confusion” to his mother and that she did not readily approve of his belief that he was a woman.

“I killed my parents because they forced me to be someone I wasn’t for so many years,” Dr. Baeder quoted from an interview she conducted with Balcer.

Balcer is not the only male currently housed in the Maine women’s prison, and is just one of multiple male inmates referenced in Mountain’s lawsuit.

Another, who was referred to using the initials NV, can be identified as Nathan “Natasha” Venable, who is serving a 40-year sentence for the repeated sexual assault of a young girl.

Venable has a lengthy sexual offense record dating back to 2007, when he was convicted of possessing 32,000 still images and 763 videos of child sexual abuse while serving in the US Army. For that crime, he was sentenced to 5 months in prison, ordered to a lifetime registration on the state’s sex offender registry, and was designated a sexual predator. But following his release, he left Illinois and began living in different states. 

In Washington, he was charged with failing to register as a sex offender, but appears to have fled the state prior to being arrested. Venable eventually settled in Maine. 

Local news reports from the time of his arrest indicate there were two young victims, but one case was never prosecuted. The second victim appears to have moved to Maine with Venable and her mother, though their exact relationship is unknown.

Venable began sexually abusing the victim when she was 10 years old while the two lived in close proximity in another state. After moving to Maine, the abuse continued on an “almost daily basis,” according to Central Maine, which referred to Venable as a “woman” throughout their coverage.

The child eventually confided in her mother about her abuse in 2022, prompting law enforcement to get involved. The mother then confronted Venable in a phone call she recorded and gave to police as evidence. In the call, Venable claimed he did not remember sexually assaulting the child.

While investigating Venable, police also found a trove of child sexual abuse material on his devices, almost all of which depicted the victim.

Venable ultimately pleaded guilty, and Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy sentenced him to 30 years in prison on charges of gross sexual assault of a child, and another 10 years on charges of sexual exploitation of a minor. Venable is currently expected to be released in 2060.

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Genevieve Gluck
Genevieve Gluck
Genevieve is the Co-Founder of Reduxx, and the outlet's Chief Investigative Journalist with a focused interest in pornography, sexual predators, and fetish subcultures. She is the creator of the podcast Women's Voices, which features news commentary and interviews regarding women's rights.
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