Women's prison guard gets prison time for sexually abusing inmate

Jul. 1—A former prison guard was given prison time Thursday for sexually abusing a woman at Montana Women's Prison.

Allan Lee Hagstrom, 41, was sentenced Thursday in Yellowstone County District Court to 10 years in prison, with five years suspended. Hagstrom, who had 13 years as a guard in several facilities across multiple states, repeatedly portrayed himself as the victim throughout the case.

"Mr. Hagstrom took advantage of his position of trust and sexually offended an inmate," said District Judge Rod Souza, who presided over the sentencing. "It has been my observation that the vast majority of females who are in the correctional system and in a custodial setting have been subjected to extensive trauma in their lives. You took advantage of the victim's vulnerability for your own sexual gratification."

County prosecutors filed charges against Hagstrom in September 2019 after a compliance officer at MWP requested an investigation from the Montana Department of Corrections. Hagstrom was a guard at MWP from August 2018 to late January 2019. Surveillance footage taken from his last shift at MWP on Jan. 25, 2019, showed Hagstrom following a woman off camera and into a blind spot while sitting in a room on the prison's third floor. The woman was later identified as an inmate. They remained off camera for about 25 minutes.

A prison staff member searched the woman's room about a week later. The guard found a piece of paper with an email address later linked to Hagstrom. In an interview with a DOC investigator, the woman said she'd had multiple sexual encounters with the prison guard, the last one occurring during his final shift Jan. 25.

Another DOC investigator traveled to Shelby to speak with Hagstrom in early February 2019, according to court documents. Hagstrom was working as a guard at Crossroads Correctional Center at the time. He told the investigator the woman performed oral sex on him at least three times. He said he did not force the woman into any kind of sexual contact, but he was worried about prison time and his wife divorcing him.

"She wanted it and I just, I f----ed up," he said, according to a transcript of the interview.

After charges were filed in September of that year, the U.S. Marshals Service in Galveston, Texas arrested Hagstrom on a warrant that was issued in November.

Hagstrom posted a $25,000 bond and was released from custody. He reached a plea agreement with county prosecutors in February 2022. He entered an Alford plea of guilty to one count of sexual intercourse without consent in exchange for the other two counts being dropped at his sentencing. An Alford guilty plea allows Hagstrom to not admit to any criminal acts, but he does acknowledge that there is enough evidence that a jury would likely find him guilty.

In several interviews and in court, Hagstrom said the victim instigated their sexual contact, typically by grabbing his genitals and leaving him powerless to respond. Testifying in court before his sentencing Thursday, Hagstrom said he regretted not fighting back. He also asked the judge to consider the victim's criminal history in his sentencing.

"She knew what she was doing," Hagstrom said.

Federal law criminalizes any kind of sexual contact between those imprisoned in the United States and officials. The Prison Rape Elimination Act, signed into law in 2003 as way to set national policies and standards to prevent rape in correctional facilities, established that incarcerated people cannot legally consent to sex with their guards. As required of all corrections officers in the state, Hagstrom had received PREA training prior to the charges filed against him.

Deputy Yellowstone County Attorney Paul Vestal asked Judge Souza for a 20-year sentence, with 10 years suspended. He said Hagstrom has avoided responsibility for what he did to the woman, and posed as a victim. Hagstrom insisting that he froze, could not fight off the woman, or gave up fighting her off because nobody would believe him, ran counter to both logic and his more than a decade of training. Vestal illustrated his point by recounting what security footage showed of Hagstrom's last shift at MSP.

Hagstrom walked into the officer's station on the third floor and sat down at a computer, according to surveillance footage. Three minutes later, footage showed the victim get off an elevator with a cleaning cart. She left the cart and walked past Hagstrom, camera footage showing her wearing black gloves. She continued into a blind spot beneath the camera. Just a few seconds later, Hagstrom got up from the computer and walked into the same blind spot. The victim walked back into frame about 25 minutes later, no longer wearing black gloves, and Hagstrom followed a few seconds after her. The victim may have initiated contact with Hagstrom, Vestal said, but Hagstrom as an officer in a position of authority did nothing to prevent it.

"Hagstrom knew what he was doing, and he did it voluntarily," Vestal said. "And as a reminder, Mr. Hagstrom testified... that quote, 'In my experience, having caught officers that were doing what I was accused of doing and having to waltz them out at the end of their shifts because of it, not a single one of them had charges pressed on them.'"

Hagstrom's defense asked Souza for a probationary sentence. His attorney argued that a psycho sexual evaluation showed he was not a serious risk to reoffend, and that he had no sexually deviant inclinations, such as pedophilia. Two people also testified on Hagstrom's behalf, saying that he was a model employee, and a devoted caretaker for his mother.

That same evaluation, however, also revealed that Hagstrom was inclined to shift blame, and skirt responsibility for his actions. Souza recounted the several times Hagstrom had demonstrated what seemed to be a lack of remorse for what he'd done to the woman. He'd made statements in which he regretted not fighting off the victim, or reporting the victim. More than two years after what happened, Souza said, Hagstrom still did not appreciate the severity of his actions.

"These statements really amount to victim blaming. But sir, you were the corrections officer. You'd had the training. The victim was in your custody, and you took advantage of that," Souza said.

Per Montana law, Hagstrom will be eligible for parole after serving two-and-a-half years of his sentence. Souza also required that Hagstrom complete sex offender training while in prison. When he leaves custody, Hagstrom will have to register as a sex offender.

In June of last year, the Montana DOC paid a six-figure settlement to a former corrections officer at MWP who faced retaliation for raising alarms regarding rape allegations at the prison. The former employee claimed that he'd been looked over for promotions because he reported his supervisor for sexually abusing women in custody in 2017.

About 30% of all reports made of sexual misconduct with the state's DOC facilities involved allegations of staff abusing inmates, according to the most recent PREA annual report published in 2020. Of those 81 reports, three were substantiated and eight were still under investigation.

A PREA audit of MWP in 2019 found the prison up to or exceeding all standards set by the legislation. However, the report noted that many women at the prison were unaware the Billings YWCA functioned as an advocacy group for MWP inmates. The report's authors recommended making it clear to the imprisoned women they have emotional support services and crisis intervention specialists for victims of sexual assault upon confidential request from YWCA.

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