A 76-year-old Tucson woman with a colorful past pleaded guilty Monday to attempted forgery as part of a plea agreement that makes her eligible for probation.
Marjorie Congdon Hagen admitted she endorsed and deposited an $11,000 check into a bank account she shared with Roger Sammis — four days after Sammis died, said defense attorney Brick Storts.
Hagen had power of attorney privileges, but didn’t know they expired when Sammis died, Storts said. After depositing the check, Hagen tried to transfer the money into her own account, he said.
Hagen could receive probation when she is sentenced in January, or she could receive up to 2.25 years in prison, Storts said.
Hagen has been charged with murder three times and served almost 12 years in prison for setting fires in Minnesota and Ajo, according to court documents.
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Hagen and her former husband, Roger Caldwell, were arrested and charged with murder in the 1977 slayings of Hagen's mother, Elisabeth Congdon, 83, and Congdon's nurse, Velma Pietila, 67.
Congdon, who was worth $8 million, was suffocated in her bed and Pietila was hit 23 times with a candlestick, authorities said.
Caldwell pleaded guilty to second-degree murder after his first-degree-murder conviction was overturned, but Hagen was acquitted and went on to marry a man named Wally Hagen.
In 1984, Marjorie Hagen was convicted of arson and insurance fraud for burning down her house in Mound, Minn. After serving 21 months in prison, she and her husband moved to Ajo in early 1990.
One year later, authorities said Marjorie Hagen used a kerosene-soaked rag to try to burn down a neighbor's home.
She was convicted of attempted arson and the judge agreed to allow her to go home for one day to make arrangements for her 84-year-old husband.
That day, however, Wally Hagen was found dead. Tests showed he died of a pill overdose, and police believe he also was exposed to natural gas from the kitchen stove through a garden hose. Marjorie Hagen was arrested and charged with murder, but the charge was dropped because of lack of evidence.
In May 1992, Hagen pleaded no contest to a criminal damage charge in a July 1990 fire at an Ajo commercial storage yard that prosecutors say was set to support a fraudulent insurance claim.
She admitted that prosecutors could prove she cut through a security fence and started a blaze that damaged four vehicles in the lot, including a recreational vehicle she and her husband owned.
Hagen was sentenced to 15 years for the fire involving her neighbor's home and to a concurrent term of eight years for the storage-yard fire.
Hagen was released from prison in January 2004.
Three books have been written about Hagen's legal troubles and The Associated Press has regularly reported that her mother's death is among Minnesota's "greatest whodunits."
Hagen will be back in court next month, but as an alleged victim.
Hagen has accused her former defense attorney, Edward Bolding, of bilking her out of more than $100,000. He is also accused of writing a threatening letter to Hagen.
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