Alleges Mistreatment and Wants Sentence Reduction and Transfer to Women’s Prison
As Maine’s Department of Corrections (DoC) loses federal funding for transferring one transgender-identifying male murderer to a women’s prison, the question may arise: is too much being made out of a single case? Are the state’s prisons simply accommodating the special needs of inmates, or is the system itself being taken for a ride?
Andrew Balcer, the individual cited on Tuesday morning by Attorney General Pam Bondi, is not the only transgender-identifying inmate catered to by Maine prisons. To better understand the context, consider the disturbing case of Walter William Moore, another murderer accusing the state of failing to do enough to facilitate his gender transition.
Originally a Massachusetts resident, Moore, then 43, was sentenced to 60 years in 2005 for the 2002 murder of Connie Gagliardi, 41, who was found tied between two trees in Southern Maine with her throat and wrists slit. At the time of his trial, Moore sought to be found not guilty by reason of insanity, but a psychiatric evaluation ordered by the court found him to be sufficiently sane to be held accountable for his action.
Moore, who prefers to be known as Nikki Natasha Petrovickov, submitted a civil rights complaint earlier this year against DoC employees, accusing them of assault and stealing his personal belongings. The complaint included an 18-page handwritten document, reviewed by The Maine Wire.
The document is riddled with multiple apparent contradictions, features a disturbingly graphic description of genital reassignment surgery, consists of strange and drastic shifts in handwriting, and includes testimony suggesting that Moore has been receiving years’ worth of taxpayer-funded gender transition drugs, along with possible surgeries.
Moore repeatedly refers to his transgender identification throughout the document. Though he previously stated that the events that gave rise to his claim took place on January 31, 2019, his handwritten testimony addressed a March 2018 meeting with a group of psychologists.
Though Moore’s account is unclear, it appears that, at the time of the meeting, he had submitted a prior civil rights complaint and that the meeting was about his transgender treatments.
According to Moore’s account, he seemingly explained his regimen of cross-sex drugs to the psychologists, including multiple daily doses of estrogen pills and weekly estrogen and Vitamin B-12 injections.
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In the same section of his complaint, Moore recounted being shown a “film” detailing the process of surgically removing a penis and replacing it with a simulated vagina.
He seems to say that he was shown the film by a psychologist, though it is written in incomplete sentences, and it is unclear whether the psychologist who seemingly showed him the video did so while he was in prison or if that occurred prior to his incarceration.
He recounted his memory of the film’s surgery in graphic, disturbing detail, and appeared to believe that receiving the surgery could allow him to have “two different vaginas” or a “cock with a vagina.”
One psychologist allegedly told Moore about a federal government “trust fund” intended to affirm the chosen identities of prison inmates with gender dysphoria. That trust fund allegedly paid for women’s clothes, laser hair removal, “Jewel,” makeup, blow dryers, curling irons, and gender reassignment surgery.
Moore’s complaint seems to say that the trust fund includes $1 million, either in total or per person, but the very next sentence states, “Cost $340,000,” leaving the details on exactly how much taxpayer money the government fund has dedicated to affirming transgender inmates unclear.
A few months later, in June 2018, Moore claims that he was taken aside by two prison officials to discuss one of his previous civil rights complaints, seemingly his 2016 complaint arguing that he was not being given enough gender transition-related medicine or procedures.
Moore said that they discussed using $885,000 to cover the cost of laser hair removal, breast enlargement, a “tummy tuck,” and genital reassignment surgery, including a ten-day stay in a private room. Moore claimed that he was told he would be transferred to a women’s prison after his surgeries.
A 2019 report from the Portland Press Herald revealed that Moore had been receiving cross-sex drugs throughout his incarceration, suggesting that he identified as transgender before his time in prison. According to that report, the prison briefly stopped providing Moore with the drugs in 2015, prompting the 2016 complaint. The prison restored the treatments in 2018, but Moore was not granted monetary compensation as he had requested.
Moore’s account suggests that, as of 2021, he had not received all the surgeries he requested, although he may have received breast enlargement surgery. He recounted a November 2021 incident, in which he seems to have been placed in handcuffs after he seemingly lifted his genitals towards a female medical examiner. The examiner, according to Moore, was already reluctant to examine him because of his male genitalia.
Based on that account, he had not received genital reassignment surgery, though he does mention his “breasts” in connection with that incident, indicating that he may have received taxpayer-funded breast enlargement surgery by that point.
The written testimony does not specify whether he received further surgeries in subsequent years, but his January complaint shows that he was not transferred to a women’s prison.
Taxpayers appear to have been paying for far more than just cross-sex hormones and gender transition surgeries for Moore. His most recent complaint alleges that he had $18,868 worth of various items in his cell that prison guards unjustly removed and did not return.
Moore/Petrovickov is currently demanding $60,425 in restitution, a $35,000 settlement plus interest, along with a six-year sentence reduction. Moore provided a detailed list of every item allegedly removed from his cell, suggesting that not only was he allowed to live in relative luxury with numerous sources of entertainment, but also that taxpayers had been paying for the convicted murderer to have internet access.
His items included a PlayStation with 30 games, a TV, a radio, headphones, size 8XL garments, “tailored panties,” a silver necklace, numerous makeup items, two wireless transmitters, two high-end multiple-terabyte capacity solid-state drives, a gaming PC, a tablet, and multiple items of Native American paraphernalia, among many other things.
The lengthy list, which includes both a computer and wireless transmitters, suggests that he was at some point able to access the internet from inside his cell.
The Maine Wire reached out to the Maine Department of Corrections with a list of clarifying questions, in an attempt to confirm aspects of Moore’s story, determine how much taxpayer money has been spent on his gender transition, and find out whether his criminal complaint has been resolved or dismissed.
The department did not immediately respond to any of the Maine Wire’s queries.
While Moore was not ultimately transferred to a women’s prison, his case shows that Balcer is not the only transgender-identifying male murderer being given special treatment and extra taxpayer benefits because of his self-selected gender identity.
The Maine Wire and GraniteGrok are members of the Associated News Service.
Authors’ opinions are their own and may not represent those of Grok Media, LLC, GraniteGrok.com, its sponsors, readers, authors, or advertisers. Submit Op-Eds to steve@granitegrok.com
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