Ex-Mass. Professor Pleads Guilty To Torturing Colleague With Fire Poker

A former Massachusetts college professor pleaded guilty to an incident in which she put a former colleague through a "four-hour torture session" involving beating the victim with a rock, fire pocker and garden shears, according to prosecutors on Christmas Eve 2019.

Rie Hachiyanagi, 50, who previously worked as an art professor at Mount Holyoke College, pleaded guilty in Greenfield District court in relation to the incident, WHDH reports.

Hachiyanagi pleaded guilty to each of the following charges, according to the Northwestern District Attorney's Office via WHDH:

• Three counts of armed assault with intent to murder a person over 60
• Three counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon on a person over 60
• One count each of home invation, mayhem and entering in the nighttime with intent to commit a felony

Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Matthew Thomas told the court Hachiyanagi went to the victim's home and knocked on the door claiming she needed emotional support due to a breakup that occurred earlier in the evening.

The victim, Lauret Savoy, let Haciyanagi in, who proceeded to attack her, which included bludgeoning Savoy with a rock and using a fire poker and pruning shears during a four-hour torture session until the victim finally got someone to help her, Thomas told the court.

Savoy told the court she was left with long-lasting emotional trauma and severe physical trauma, including some believed to be permanent, in relation to the incident.

“This is a definition of torture. For four hours I experienced literal torture of body and of mind, not knowing if I would survive the next minute—yet needing to find some way to save my life,” Savoy told the court. “The emotional, physical, financial, and professional impacts of this crime have been huge and they continue. Now the defendant’s violation of me is becoming part of a public persona that I did not choose. She has invaded my privacy, my career, my life.”

Hachiyanagi is scheduled to appear at a sentencing hearing on Wednesday (October 20) at 10:30 a.m.