Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge James Bonifant ruled Wednesday that Catherine Hoggle, the mother of two young children who went missing in 2014, is competent to stand trial and assist in her own defense.
Hoggle faces two first-degree murder charges in the disappearances of 3-year-old Sarah and 2-year-old Jacob who were last seen on Sept. 7, 2014. Their bodies have never been found.
Bonifant handed down his ruling Wednesday following a two-day hearing to determine whether Hoggle was competent to stand trial, despite a serious schizophrenia diagnosis. She had previously been found incompetent to stand trial consistently since first being charged with murder in 2017.
“The key points here were text messages and phone conversations, not private phone conversations … where Catherine Hoggle, even though he declared her to be schizophrenic, declared that she was capable of understanding the charges against her,” WTOP’s Dan Ronan reported live from the court house.
Hoggle will be remanded to a state psychiatric institution and will be back in court on Dec. 23 for a status hearing.
Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said Hoggle’s case is very complicated and been in the public’s eye for over a decade. Because of the length of time involved to prepare for the trial, it could be the end of 2026 before Hoggle is sentenced.
In 2014, Hoggle was initially charged with misdemeanor child neglect — misdemeanor charges of parental abduction and obstructing an investigation were later added — but she was repeatedly found incompetent to stand trial by Montgomery County District Court judges.
In September 2017, with the children still missing, Hoggle was indicted on two counts of murder.
Psychiatrists disagree on Hoggle’s competency
A state-appointed psychiatrist and a psychiatrist hired by McCarthy’s office held differing opinions on Hoggle’s cognitive ability at a competency hearing Tuesday.
Dr. Nicole Johnson is a state-appointed forensic psychiatrist with the Clifton T. Perkins psychiatric hospital where Hoggle has been housed and treated for years.
Johnson told Bonifant 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 said 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 2014, and that she is rational and able to assist in her own defense.
WTOP’s Neal Augenstein contributed to this report.
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