Apple Valley Firefighter Charged With Spray Painting Car, Assaulting Another Firefighter

An Apple Valley firefighter faces criminal charges after police say she spray painted "slut" on another firefighter's car, assaulted her and stole her cell phone, allegedly because she didn't approve of the other firefighter's boyfriend.

Trudy Jean Hagert, 41, is charged with felony simple robbery, and fourth-degree criminal damage to property and fifth-degree assault, both misdemeanors. The maximum combined penalty for all three charges is 10.5 years in prison and a $22,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaint, the alleged victim approached an officer at an Apple Valley fire station at 9:30 p.m. on Nov. 8, was crying and told the officer Hagert had assaulted her.

The woman said she believed Hagert did not approve of the woman's new boyfriend, also a firefighter, the complaint said.

She told police she believed Hagert had tampered with her car earlier in the week, the complaint says, so she left it parked at the fire station and used her mother's car instead.

The woman told police she went to pick up something at the fire station on the night of Nov. 8 and allegedly saw Hagert spray painting the word "slut" on her parked car, and took a picture with her cell phone.

Hagert saw the woman and tried to grab the cell phone, and allegedly began hitting the woman, pulling her hair and strangling her when she couldn't get it, the complaint says.

Hagert then pulled the woman from her car and she fell, and Hagert took her cell phone and ran away, according to the complaint.

Officers went to Hagert's home and allegedly found her walking toward it, with purple paint on her fingers that matched the spray paint at the scene.

In March, Hagert and several other Apple Valley emergency personnel for helping a man who went into cardiac arrest while they responded to a fire at his home.