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Claudia Hoerig asks for expert witness in battered woman syndrome
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Attorneys for Claudia Hoerig, who is charged with the aggravated murder of her husband, Maj. Karl Hoerig, in their Newton Falls home in 2007, apparently plans to use battered-women’s syndrome in her defense and ask for certain evidence to be suppressed.
A filing this week in her case asks Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to allow her to hire a “licensed psychologist with expertise in battered-woman syndrome” to aid in her defense.
The filing asks that Karla Fischer of Champaign, Ill., be hired for up to $6,250. Hoerig has to ask the court to provide expert witnesses in her case because she doesn’t have money to pay for one herself.
Fischer’s resume says she has been an expert witness and domestic-violence consultant since 1993.
She is an attorney and has written and lectured on domestic violence and is adjunct professor of social work and adjunct law professor, both at the University of Illinois.
Fischer was hired as an expert witness in the case of an Illinois woman charged and later convicted of killing her husband in 2014.
Fischer conducted an evaluation of the woman and found she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder because of her husband’s abuse. But the court ruled Fischer was not qualified in Indiana to testify on the “effects of battery” defense and PTSD because she was not a licensed psychologist.
Also, Hoerig’s attorneys with the Ohio Public Defender’s Office have asked Judge Logan to suppress evidence seized just after the killing at the Hoerig home on West Ninth Street and of cars in the driveway and in an airport parking lot.
The filing also asks for all statements Claudia Hoerig made to agents with the U.S. Marshal’s Service on the airplane ride back from Brazil in January to be excluded from evidence.
The filing attacks the search warrants obtained to investigate the house and cars on the grounds, saying they contained hearsay evidence and fail to specify what crimes authorities believe were committed or what items should be seized.
On the plane ride back to Ohio, according to court documents, Claudia Hoerig told agents she killed her husband because she “suffered from mental and physical abuse, and that Karl had sexual fetishes she was uncomfortable with.”