WASHINGTON — The question of Catherine Hoggle’s mental competency continues to delay the case surrounding her children’s disappearance.
The court is expected to address the matter of Hoggle’s competency at a hearing on April 25.
In the latest court filings, prosecutors and Hoggle’s family say she is faking her incompetency and that she knows exactly what she is doing.
In response to the family’s claim, Hoggle’s attorney David Felsen says it’s up to doctors to determine Hoggle’s state of mind.
“The family is in the midst of an extremely tragic circumstance — the children are not with them; they do not know where the children are,” Felsen says. “I believe that, at this point, the family would do just about anything they need to. I’m not ascribing any malice to anybody, but the people who filled out the affidavits are not medical professionals.”
Doctors at the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center in Jessup, Maryland have described Hoggle’s behavior as irrational, bizarre and withdrawn. The Washington Post says court records note she has tried to escape the maximum-security psychiatric center several times in the 18 months she has spent there.
On at least eight different occasions, Hoggle grabbed a staff member’s security badge to try to escape her unit. She made it through the first barrier a few of those times.
The hospital has kept Hoggle under intensive supervision with a staff member never being too far away. The documents also say she has assaulted other patients at least twice and looped sheets together at part of a plot to scale an outside fence in another escape attempt. After one failed escape attempt, hospital officials told Hoggle that police would come looking for her if she had gotten away, to which she responded, “I didn’t think of that.”
Her condition in the hospital has fluctuated. The latest assessment done in February had shown no improvement.
In an interview with WTOP on Sunday, Felsen said he wouldn’t comment on the medical records but said he was “disappointed” that they were being made public.
Hoggle has been charged with neglect, abduction and hindering, according to Montgomery County District Court records accessed online. She has not been charged with murder.
WTOP’s Jamie Forzato contributed to this report
