Former therapist’s 4-year sexual abuse sentence stands in appeals court
Mandy Hyland / MN Dept. of Corrections
(ABC 6 News) _ A former Rochester therapist accused of sexually abusing her client was disappointed by an appellate court ruling this week.
Mandy Erin Hyland was sentenced to four years at the MN Correctional Facility in Shakopee last March, after pleading guilty to 3rd-degree criminal sexual conduct with a man she was treating.
Hyland’s defense requested a probationary sentence following her plea — which was denied, given that Hyland had violated her pretrial conditions of release.
She appealed the prison sentence in May of 2024.
On Feb. 3, 2025, the MN Court of Appeals affirmed Olmsted County Court’s decision to sentence Hyland to prison instead of probation.
“Appellant’s inappropriate relationship with her former client who is a vulnerable adult as well as her noncompliance with the district court’s no-contact order with victim support the district court’s finding that she is not particularly amenable to probation and its decision not to grant a dispositional departure,” the appellate court concluded.
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(ABC 6 News) – Mandy Erin Hyland, a former Rochester therapist who pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a client, received a 48-month, or 4-year prison sentence in Olmsted County Court Tuesday, March 5.
Hyland was originally arrested in July of 2023, after a former patient told law enforcement that she had begun a sexual relationship with him while treating him–then refused to let him cut off contact.
She was re-arrested in October after Olmsted County staff allegedly found copious evidence that she had been in close contact with the former patient — from whom she had been ordered to maintain distance.
She was released at the end of the same month after pleading guilty to 3rd-degree criminal sexual conduct–prohibited occupational relationship.
Hyland was ordered to report to the MN Correctional Facility in Shakopee March 5, with credit for 28 days served in the Olmsted County ADC.
She was also sentenced to 10 years’ probation after release,and ordered to register as a predatory offender.