Hoggle's Lawyer Files For Hearing On Mental 'Restorability'

ROCKVILLE, MD — The attorney for Catherine Hoggle, a Montgomery County mother charged with killing her two children in 2014, filed a request for a hearing to determine if doctors find Hoggle to be “restorable,” meaning that she could eventually stand trial.

Hoggle has been held in a state psychiatric center since she was charged, and has repeatedly been found unfit to participate in her defense. Hoggle has a history of schizophrenia, and was most recently found unfit to stand trial after a medical examination conducted by the state in April 2022.

Her attorney, David Felsen, previously argued that under state law Hoggle’s case should be dropped in 2020, five years after she was found incompetent to stand trial when she was charged with misdemeanors.

The Maryland Court of Special Appeals decided in September 2021 that her case may be dropped in December 2022 — five years after she was charged with murder — if she continues to be found incomptent to stand trial throughout that period. The court said that clock started when she was charged with a felony, not when she was charged with the earlier misdemeanors.

Even if the felony charges were dropped, Hoggle would likely be held in the state’s care if she is determined to be dangerous.

Authorities say Hoggle was the last person seen with her kids, Sarah, then 3, and Jacob, then 2, in September 2014, and said Hoggle told them she gave her children to someone and they were safe, but would not say where they were.

She was arrested three days after their disappearance and charged with misdemeanors. Hoggle was indicted on murder charges in 2017, and doctors at the state facility said she was incompetent to stand trial on Dec. 1, 2017.