A motion hearing challenging an expert defense witness was canceled Feb. 22, and the trial of a woman charged with shooting an Oconto Falls police officer can proceed as scheduled April 1.
Alisha Kocken, 31, of Oconto Falls is charged in Oconto County Circuit Court with attempted first-degree intentional homicide and three other felony counts in the wounding of Officer Nicole Blaskowski on Aug. 6, 2021. Kocken has pleaded no contest to the charges but also not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.
The plea jumps the proceedings to what would be the second part of a two-part trial. The jury no longer has to consider whether Kocken is guilty, because she is no longer contesting the facts. In the second part of the trial, her mental condition at the time of the incident is at question.
Prosecutors had challenged defense attorney John Miller Carroll’s plan to call two psychologists who examined Kocken briefly after she was confined at Winnebago Mental Health Institution in the weeks after her arrest. During a Jan. 25 hearing they argued that the statute under which psychologist Kevin Miller reviewed Kocken is not the same as the one that applies to a legal finding of not guilty due to mental disease or defect.
The Feb. 22 hearing was to hear from the other psychologist, Marshall John Bales, but a few days before the hearing, the prosecution submitted a letter saying the state concedes that Bales “meets the minimum standards to testify as an expert witness pertaining to defendant’s mental illness.” The concession eliminated the need for the hearing.
A final pre-trial conference had not yet been scheduled as of press time.
wbluhm@newmedia-wi.com
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