Judge rules woman's alleged confession to counselor about grandmother's death is admissible
Angela Judd had gotten away with murder, authorities say, before she confessed to a social worker in late January that she had smothered her 92-year-old grandmother to death a month earlier.
But it wasn’t until Tuesday that Judd was charged with murder in the death of Nada Bodholdt, after an unusual court proceeding.
Because state law arguably required Judd’s counselor to keep the information confidential, Deschutes County district attorney John Hummel sought a court ruling in a preliminary hearing about the admissibility of the claimed confession before proceeding, reports the Associated Press.
On Tuesday, Deschutes Circuit Judge Beth Bagley ruled that the 45-year-old Judd should be charged with murder.
“Rather then, in essence, making my own legal ruling on this issue under the cloak of secrecy afforded by the grand jury process, it was appropriate to provide defense counsel the opportunity to weigh in on this critically important legal issue,” said Hummel in a written statement provided to the news agency.
Bodholdt was initially thought to have died of natural causes, and her body was cremated without an autopsy. So what Judd allegedly said to her counselor is likely to be crucial evidence in the case.
Attorney Jonathan Ash argued on Judd’s behalf that the counseling session was privileged and confidential. However, Bagley ruled that social worker Wendy Jones had a duty under state law as a mandatory reporter of elder abuse. This trumped confidentiality provisions that applied to the counseling session, reports the Bend Bulletin.
Judd, as a registered nurse, was presumably aware that Jones was a mandatory reporter, the article notes. Jones called 911 about Judd after their first session.
In a memorandum in the case, prosecutors offered two possible motives for the alleged slaying of Bodholdt, a KTVZ article reported earlier.
The memo says Jones talked about wanting to spare her grandmother, who was in hospice care, an unpleasant death. But it also says Jones talked about being exhausted and said her grandmother was a financial burden.
