{"id":239293,"date":"2025-09-19T16:09:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T16:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/239293\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T16:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T16:09:10","slug":"houston-area-midwife-appears-in-court-for-first-time-since-being-indicted-on-illegal-abortion-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/239293\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston area midwife appears in court for first time since being indicted on illegal abortion charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\"><strong>Waller<\/strong> \u2013 Maria Rojas, the Houston area midwife indicted in June on 15 felony counts of performing illegal abortion and practicing medicine without a license, appeared in Waller County court before Judge Gary Chaney on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The Texas Attorney General\u2019s Office announced Rojas\u2019 arrest in March. The case received national attention because the arrest was the first-of-its-kind since Texas enacted a near-total abortion ban.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">On Friday, there was a status check on Rojas\u2019s criminal case. Rojas appeared composed and quiet in court. <\/p>\n<ul class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 kDvXdO font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\"\/><\/ul>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">She is represented by attorney Nicole DeBorde Hochglaube.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Lesleigh Morton was in court on Friday as the prosecutor on behalf of the AG\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">At the center of the status check was evidence. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Morton said three batches of discovery had been turned over to the defense and another batch will be turned over on Friday. About a third of all the discovery has been given to the defense so far, according to Morton.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Earlier this week, Hochglaube filed a formal request for discovery outlining all the missing items, including grand jury testimony, surveillance videos, search warrant and digital forensic data.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 kDvXdO font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\"\/><\/ul>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kNAFkD cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cWe believe that she did not commit a crime and we look forward to doing everything we can to get to the truth in this matter,\u201d Hochglaube told KPRC 2 after court on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The last time Rojas was in Waller County court was for a hearing on a temporary injunction to keep her medical clinics closed. A judge ruled in favor of keeping them shut.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cIt\u2019s very hard, of course, to be accused of a crime, especially when we believe that the crime is not is not there,\u201d said Hochglaube.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Rojas\u2019s next court date is set for January 7.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 kDvXdO font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__StackBase-sc-1fnzlkn-7 ecGWWE iQviKm\"\/><\/ul>\n<p>Start Here, Houston<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kiwhtN\">More Stories Like This In Our Email Newsletter<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Waller \u2013 Maria Rojas, the Houston area midwife indicted in June on 15 felony counts of performing illegal&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":239294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[3789,4219,4345,128099,128098,112509,358,3187,128097],"class_list":{"0":"post-239293","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-abortion","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-maria-rojas","12":"tag-medical-clinic","13":"tag-midwife","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-tx","16":"tag-waller-county"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115231835173477036","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}