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A Montgomery County judge declares Catherine Hoggle competent to stand trial for murder in the 2014 disappearance of her children.
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.
On Monday, a two-day hearing began into whether Hoggle was competent to stand trial, despite a serious schizophrenia diagnosis. She had been found incompetent to stand trial consistently since 2015.
Hoggle faces two first-degree murder charges for the deaths of 3-year-old Sarah and 2-year-old Jacob. Their bodies have never been found.
“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 scene.
Hoggle will be remanded to a state psychiatric institution and will be back in court on Dec. 23 for a status hearing.
State’s Attorney John McCarthy said this is a very complicated and public case for over a decade, and because of the length of time involved to prepare for the trial, it probably won’t happen until the end of 2026 for sentencing.
A state-appointed psychiatrist and a psychiatrist hired by Montgomery County’s State’s Attorney held differing opinions on Hoggle’s cognitive ability at a hearing Tuesday.
Dr. Nicole Johnson, a state-appointed forensic psychiatrist with the Clifton T. Perkins psychiatric hospital, 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 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 2014, and that she is rational and able to assist in her own defense.
WTOP’s Neal Augenstein contributed to this report.
This story is developing. Check back with WTOP for updates.
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Ciara Wells
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