Sarah and jacob hoggle update 2022

Catherine Hoggle faces murder charges in the disappearance of her two kids back in 2014. If she is found not competent to stand trial, those charges may be dropped.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — A Montgomery County mother accused of killing her two children is expected to appear in court on Thursday.

Catherine Hoggle faces murder charges in the disappearance of her two kids back in 2014, however she has never been found competent to stand trial. Now, it's possible those murder charges could be dropped.

On Thursday, a judge will decide whether Hoggle has made enough progress to face the charges in court, if not, she could walk free.

Catherine Hoggle was the last person to see 2-year-old Jacob and 3-year-old Sarah Hoggle, and has been confined to a mental hospital since the children disappeared in September 2014. She was initially arrested and charged with misdemeanors in their disappearance. 

In July 2019, a Maryland judge granted the prosecution's motion for a new psychiatrist to assess whether or not Hoggle was competent to stand trial.

Hoggle was first found incompetent in 2015 after she was charged with child abduction. Those misdemeanor charges were later dismissed. Hoggle's lawyers thus filed a motion to dismiss, arguing the five-year clock expired in 2020.

Last year, Hoggle lost a motion to dismiss the case, according to a Maryland Court of Special Appeals decision. The court's opinion says the statutory five-year period for dismissal of the murder charges began when the circuit court found that the defendant was incompetent to stand trial on murder charges, not when the district court had found the defendant incompetent to stand trial on the misdemeanor charges. 

As a result, Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy would have until December 2022 to bring the case to trial, if Hoggle is ever ruled competent to stand trial.  

Hoggle has been treated for mental illness at a hospital in Jessup, Maryland, since 2015. Her doctors say her condition hasn't improved.

If she is again ruled not competent, she would be released from the criminal commitment at the hospital to a civil commitment.

The state's attorney for Maryland has said that if at any point in the future she is found competent to stand trial, they can reinstitute the charges.

The prosecutor is asking the judge to question Catherine Hoggle's competency himself, despite the doctor's opinions that she is "profoundly mentally ill."

ROCKVILLE, Md. — The Montgomery County’s State’s Attorney told a judge Thursday he wants to put a mom accused of killing her own kids more than seven years ago on the witness stand so the judge can determine for himself if she is competent to stand trial. 

In the seven years since Sarah and Jacob Hoggle went missing at the age of two and three, their mother, Catherine Hoggle, has been declared incompetent to stand trial 20 times. Catherine Hoggle currently remains in a state mental hospital, and her lawyer alleges she is "profoundly mentally ill." 

Maryland law says Catherine Hoggle either has to go on trial by December 2022, or the murder charges have to be dropped. Prosecutors fear that without criminal charges to hold her, she could eventually be released from the hospital without facing accountability for the alleged murders.

Montgomery County State’s attorney John McCarthy asked Judge Richard Jordan to question Hoggle himself.

"It's not the medical decision, it's a legal determination," McCarthy said. "The person who has the legal authority to make this decision is the judge, not the doctors." 

Judge Jordan, who’s been brought out of retirement to hear the case, said in court that he was not prepared to put Hoggle on the stand during the Thursday hearing. Her lawyer warned that he would advise Hoggle to assert her fifth Amendment rights and refuse to be questioned. But McCarthy said in a matter of mental competency the judge could compel Hoggle to answer questions.

Jordan scheduled another hearing for October and asked for both sides to bring witnesses including doctors.

Meanwhile, supporters of the children's father, Troy Turner, staged a demonstration outside the Montgomery County Circuit Court in Rockville saying justice delayed is justice denied.

"As far as her talking, as long as she's comfortable, there's no reason for her to," Turner said. "She is someone who has killed two children and she's sticking to her story.  That doesn't show that she's delusional, it shows that she is a murderer sticking to her story." 

Turner and his supporters said a murder trial would not only mean accountability for Catherine Hoggle, but it might force her to give up her secrets. Despite years of searching, the two children have never been found.

Prosecutors, however, maintain there’s ample circumstantial evidence to convict Hoggle of murder.