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Crime, Law and Justice
Matt Sepic
Shakopee, Minn.

Jury acquits former Renaissance Festival manager of rape

Buildings at the Renaissance Festival in Shakopee.
Buildings at the Renaissance Festival in Shakopee, Minn., Oct. 2.
Drew Geraets | Creative Commons via Flickr 2010

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Updated: June 8, 7:15 a.m.

A jury on Tuesday acquitted a former Renaissance Festival manager of sexual assault.

Prosecutors charged Carr Hagerman with two counts of criminal sexual conduct, alleging that he raped a freelance photographer in a building on the festival’s grounds in Shakopee in late 2017 after luring her to a storage room.

Jurors found the 63-year-old not guilty on both counts.

The Scott County Attorney's Office first charged Hagerman in 2018, but dismissed the case two years later after the accuser was unable to travel from out of state to testify amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prosecutors re-filed the charges last fall.

In a statement sent to MPR News, Hagerman's attorney Piper Wold lauded the verdict and said "justice was a long time coming for Mr. Hagerman."

Even though jurors acquitted Hagerman in the criminal case, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights found the photographer's allegations to be credible.

The state reached a settlement with the festival's parent company last year after determining that it failed "to provide a safe work environment free from sexual harassment or assault."

Hagerman was known to festivalgoers as the “Rat Catcher,” a character he portrayed for four decades, who dressed in a filthy costume and hurled insults at passersby. Hagerman was also the festival’s entertainment director, where he oversaw up to 500 performers.

In 2018, several women who worked at the festival told MPR News that they felt unsafe there after enduring threats, abuse and sexual harassment from Hagerman.