Two days of testimony to determine whether a Maryland mother is competent to stand trial for murder in the 2014 disappearance of her two young children are now over.
Catherine Hoggle, 38, was the last person seen with her children, 3-year-old Sarah and 2-year-old Jacob, before they vanished Sept. 7, 2014. Hoggle has a long history of mental health issues, including paranoia and schizophrenia, and had been found incompetent to stand trial in 2017.
After nearly five years of being found incompetent to stand trial, in November 2022, a judge questioned Hoggle to determine whether she could help in her own defense. The questioning did not include specifics about what happened to her children.
Nicole Johnson, a state-appointed forensic psychiatrist with the Clifton T. Perkins psychiatric hospital, said Tuesday that she believes Hoggle is still not competent to stand trial — that she is psychotic, delusional and dangerous.
Johnson said Hoggle has psychotic thoughts and still has the delusion that prosecutors are fabricating and falsifying evidence against her. She noted that Hoggle’s disorganized thinking would make it impossible to assist in her own defense.
But Dr. Christiane Tellefsen, a psychiatrist hired by the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office, told the judge she believes Hoggle is competent to stand trial. After reading texts, listening to jail phone calls and talking with Hoggle, Tellefsen said she believes Hoggle has shown no evidence of psychosis since 2024, and that she is rational and able to assist in her own defense.
In closing arguments, Deputy State’s Attorney Ryan Wechsler said that in texts and phone calls with her parents, Hoggle demonstrated strategizing what her defense should be. Hoggle provided detailed directions to her parents, as they discussed the possibility of hiring a new lawyer.
Tellefsen said Hoggle’s condition continued to improve once her initial charges were dropped in 2022.
Wechsler said Hoggle fully understands what competency is, “and knows the consequences of being found competent.”
“Catherine Hoggle’s best defense is to remain incompetent,” Wechsler told the judge.
In the defense’s closing argument, attorney David Felsen contradicted the prosecution’s argument, saying “competency is not a defense,” and that with two psychiatrists having opposing viewpoints, prosecutors failed to prove Hoggle is competent beyond a reasonable doubt — the legal standard.
And while prosecutors said Hoggle’s texts and phone calls showed she was capable of planning a legal defense, Felsen said, “If I plan to fly, that doesn’t make me competent, because I can’t fly.”
Outside the courtroom, Troy Turner, the father of Jacob and Sarah Hoggle, said after hearing two days of testimony, he feels more hopeful Catherine will stand trial.
Hoggle’s mother, Lindsey, told reporters that after her case was dismissed in 2022, and she began a civil commitment, Hoggle had more access to mental health counseling, which has helped in her recovery.
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