Focus diplomat: James Hogan Case: Missing Diplomat's Wife Pleads Guilty to ...

Monday, April 2, 2012

James Hogan Case: Missing Diplomat's Wife Pleads Guilty to ...

Via USDOJ:
Florida Woman Pleads Guilty to Obstruction of Justice in Relation to Her Husband’s Disappearance
Friday, March 30, 2012

Abby Beard Hogan, 50, pleaded guilty yesterday in the Northern District of Florida for her role in the obstruction of a multinational investigation into the disappearance of her husband, James Hogan, then an employee in the U.S. Consulate in Curacao, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Pamela Cothran Marsh for the Northern District of Florida, U.S. Department of State Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security Eric J. Boswell and John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Miami Field Office.

Abby Hogan pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gary R. Jones to one count of obstruction of

Abby Hogan
(Photo from Aruba Daily)

justice. According to court documents, on the night of Sept. 24, 2009, James Hogan, an employee at the U.S. Consulate in Curacao, a Caribbean island that was part of the Netherlands Antilles, left his home on foot and subsequently disappeared. In the early hours of Sept. 25, 2009, James Hogan called his wife and spoke for approximately three minutes.   The next day, when James Hogan failed to report to work, the U.S. government and Dutch and Antillean law enforcement launched an island-wide search and opened an investigation into Hogan’s disappearance.   On Sept. 25, 2009, a diver located James Hogan’s blood-stained clothing on a local beach.

Abby Hogan admitted that during the course of the investigation, she repeatedly provided false information to U.S. law enforcement about the time period before James Hogan’s disappearance and withheld relevant information. Abby Hogan initially told investigators that, before his disappearance, she and her husband had an argument.   She subsequently modified that statement and claimed that there had been no argument, just a minor disagreement over her husband’s next assignment for the State Department.   Abby Hogan further told U.S. law enforcement agents that James Hogan had been in a “good mood” prior to leaving for his walk on the evening of his disappearance.   She repeatedly denied that there had been any marital problems or that her husband had been upset, depressed or suicidal in any way.   Abby Hogan further stated that she could not remember the full three-minute conversation before her husband disappeared because she was sound asleep when her husband called.   She claimed she fell back asleep after the call, and did not awake until the following morning.

According to court documents, after law enforcement interviews, between Sept. 30, 2009, and Jan. 15,

James Hogan
(Photo from ScaredMonkeys)

2010, Abby Hogan deleted more than 300 emails from her Internet email account.   These emails contained information that Abby Hogan knew was relevant to specific questions she had been asked by U.S. law enforcement.   The emails also contained information that she had either previously misrepresented or knowingly omitted during her interviews with law enforcement, including that she was engaged in an extramarital affair; the night James Hogan disappeared, the couple had argued, and he left the house angry and upset; and that she did not want law enforcement to know what had happened that evening.

Abby Hogan faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for obstruction of justice.

We have been following this case since September 2009 when FSO James Hogan was first reported missing in the Netherlands Antilles (see related posts below). The ScaredMonkeys website has a copy of Ms. Hogan’s indictment here. The James Hogan missing flyer is still up on the US Consulate General Curacao’s website. Despite the obstruction of justice guilty plea here, we are nowhere closer to understanding what happened to Mr. Hogan over there.