A female inmate at the Maine State Women’s Prison detailed alleged sexual abuse and threats she suffered when forced to share a bunk with a trans-identifying male, as well as retaliation from prison officials, in a letter sent to The Maine Wire.
“My roommate Andrea Balcer [Andrew Balcer] is still at the woman’s center living her [sic] best life. He assaults women like me and they look the other way as I have now found I am the at least 6th girl he has done this too. I have all 6 other women’s names. The prison is doing nothing to stop him,” said inmate Katie Mountain in a letter sent to The Maine Wire.
“I am praying I can get my story out so I can make things safe for the women who come after me,” she added.
Mountain reached out to The Maine Wire via letter, hoping to share her experiences under the care of the Maine Department of Corrections (MDOC), led by Gov. Janet Mills’ appointed Commissioner Randall Liberty.
The Maine Wire can confirm that Mountain is currently incarcerated following a theft and burglary conviction in late November, with an earliest release date of June 5, 2026.
We can also confirm that the inmate she accused of assault and harassment, Andrew Balcer, who sometimes goes by “Andrea Balcer,” is a male currently incarcerated in the same women’s facility as Mountain. The Maine Wire could not independently verify the specific allegations made against Balcer by Mountain.
[RELATED: Maine Man Who Murdered His Parents and Dog Moved to Women’s Prison…]
We reached out to Commissioner Liberty and the MDOC’s media contact in an attempt to confirm aspects of Mountain’s story and to solicit comments from the department, but they did not immediately respond. We also submitted a Freedom of Access Act request for records of complaints filed against Balcer or disciplinary actions taken against him and are awaiting a response.
“I knew coming to serve my 10 month sentence wouldn’t be a walk in the park but I never thought in a million years it would be a straight nightmare from hell,” said Mountain.
She claims that, when moving into the women’s center upon her arrival at prison, she was placed in a situation requiring her to share a cell and even a bunk with Balcer, a trans-identifying male.
Balcer, a six-foot-one, 310 lb man, was convicted in 2017 of stabbing his parents and their family dog to death. He was allowed to transfer to the women’s prison in 2022 under Liberty’s administration because he declared himself to be transgender.
According to Mountain, being forced to share a bunk with Balcer made her extremely uncomfortable because, as a married Baptist Christian, sharing a bed with a man other than her husband violated her religious convictions.
She accused Balcer of making sexual comments towards her, such as, “Sorry, I can’t help you, but I can put a baby in you.” He also allegedly made numerous comments about “his manhood.”
When she decided to complain to prison officials, she said she was warned by other female inmates that she would be the one punished if she complained about the conduct of the trans-identifying Balcer.
Mountain told The Maine Wire that she spoke with prison officials multiple times over the following weeks while she continued to share a bunk with Balcer and even had her husband reach out from outside the prison, but she was not transferred to a different cell.
“At this time, I was having a hard time telling them what I was fully going through because I was ashamed and embarrassed,” she said.
Mountain claimed that, on one occasion, she found Balcer sitting at the top of her bed, staring at her while she slept, and that Balcer told her, “Don’t worry; if you don’t wake up, I smothered you with a pillow.”
The situation allegedly came to a head when Balcer asked Mountain to go into the bathroom. Mountain said that Balcer began reading a sexual story he had written that focused on her.
Mountain explained that as she was trying to leave the bathroom, Balcer allegedly pushed her against the wall and forced a kiss on her before she was able to slip away and leave the room.
Prison officials allegedly told Mountain that she still would not be able to leave the cell for at least the rest of the week, despite the alleged assault.
“I finally snapped and called him [the prison official] I couldn’t live in there anymore and I would do anything like go smash my roommate in the mouth so I could get free of it all,” she said.
In response to her comments, Mountain said she was placed in “seg” or segregation, away from Balcer, and her belongings were confiscated.
She also claimed that she was prevented from taking her medication during her first day in segregation.
“I was even punished by them keeping my medication from me that first day so I was so sick. I did not get clean clothes for the first 3 days and had no hygiene until day 7,” she said.
She claimed that prison officials are aware that Balcer is an alleged sexual predator and do nothing, and that she is at least the sixth woman to face sexual abuse from the transgender-identifying male.
“The prison has shattered every part of my soul. The hell of living in sin while fearing your roommate every day is cruel and unusual torture,” said Mountain.
Balcer has been a source of controversy for Liberty’s MDOC, even drawing national outrage from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
In April, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the MDOC would lose all federal non-essential funding as long as it continued to house Balcer in the women’s prison.
Despite AG Bondi’s threats, Liberty has maintained his staunch commitment to allowing a violent 310 lb man to stay with incarcerated women.
Balcer isn’t the only man housed in the women’s prison. A man using the name Ashley Lynn Bushey, 54, who identifies as female, is currently being held following a conviction for elevated aggravated assault and drug trafficking.
