Suspect seeks to withdraw no-contest plea in rape case
A man who pleaded no contest Dec. 28 to sexually assaulting a 23-year-old woman last August has filed a motion to withdraw that plea.
Jimmie Lee Hogan, 27, is accused of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent and one count of intimidation against Priscilla Ann Wetzel.
He was arrested Aug. 11. After his "no contest" plea, his sentencing originally was scheduled for Feb. 8 but was continued a number of times to allow for a pre-sentence investigation.
His attorney, Vicki Frazier, filed the motion to withdraw his earlier "no contest" plea March 29, and pledged to follow with a brief, explaining reasons for the withdrawal.
In court Thursday, Frazier explained to District Judge Ted Lympus that inconsistencies in court testimony were among the factors prompting her advice that her client withdraw the plea.
The motion was filed 11 days after Wetzel died at a hotel in Spokane, where she and a group of friends spent the St. Patrick's Day holiday.
Deputy County Attorney Dan Guzynski says the motion "is simply an attempt by the defendant to profit from the premature death of the victim."
He asked Lympus to proceed with sentencing next week as scheduled, giving the family closure as soon as possible.
He argued that the sentence could be canceled if the judge found good reason for Hogan to withdraw his guilty plea. The case then would proceed to trial.
Lympus did not agree. He said court action needs to proceed in an appropriate sequence, and holding sentencing before making a final determination on the plea was inappropriate.
Frazier told Lympus she will file the brief supporting the plea-withdrawal request by Wednesday, April 11.
Wetzel had pressed charges against Hogan, saying he assaulted her after her car broke down at night early last August. She flagged down help, and it was Hogan who stopped to give her a ride to her Kalispell apartment.
He stopped his vehicle at a river bridge and allegedly forced her to have sex twice and threatened to kill her, according to her mother, Mandy Rush.
When they arrived at her apartment, she called 911, and Hogan left.
Wetzel was small - just 105 pounds and 5 feet 4 inches tall - and an avid motocross rider, her mother said. She was taking classes at Flathead Valley Community College, where she had just received a near-perfect score in an algebra class March 14, just a couple of days before her friends convinced her to go to Spokane to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.
Rush said her daughter did not want to go, because she would miss a motocross race Sunday, March 18. But she always wanted to please people, Rush said, so agreed to go to avoid angering her friends.
Early the next morning, after a night of partying, her body was pulled out of a hot tub at the Spokane hotel.
A police investigation followed. Autopsy results are confidential in Washington, and the medical examiner's office is awaiting toxicology results, which could take as long as 10-12 weeks.
Rush said she is heartbroken at what has happened to her daughter from last August through now, even after her death. She said she will do whatever is needed to see Hogan brought to justice.
"I've got to fight for her," Rush said, "because it's just wrong."