Defendant takes plea deal in ball bat beating
Toolbox
By Brent Curtis Staff Writer - Published: October 21, 2009
Jason Hochberg was just happy he was able to be in the courtroom Tuesday when Scott A. Goetz pleaded guilty to using a wooden baseball bat to assault him a year ago.
Goetz, 37, of Proctor, pleaded guilty to felony charges of burglary in an occupied dwelling and aggravated assault with a weapon and a misdemeanor charge of violating an abuse prevention order which, all told, could send him to jail for a minimum of five years and a maximum of 20 years in accordance with a plea agreement reached with prosecutors.
Goetz will be sentenced at a later date.
Watching from the sidelines Tuesday as Goetz changed his innocent plea to guilty in Rutland District Court was Hochberg and his mother, Maryjean Hochberg. Neither spoke during the brief change of plea hearing. But afterward, Jason Hochberg, who was 29 years old when the incident took place in August 2008, said he had recovered from the attack that hospitalized him with multiple injuries.
His mother had more to say about the proceedings.
"I'm glad we're able to get closer to putting this behind us," she said. "The system is slow, but it works."
Police said Goetz assaulted Hochberg after an argument with his wife, Jennifer Goetz, from whom he is supposed to stay away, according to a court order.
But State Police Trooper Robert McKenna wrote in a court affidavit that Goetz told him he returned to his wife's house on Campbell Road in a "rage" after downing two shots of whiskey and spotting Hochberg's truck parked in his wife's driveway.
Taking up a 34-ounce baseball bat, which Goetz told police he intended to use to break down his wife's door, he told police he walked to the house where he found the back door unlocked.
McKenna wrote that Goetz changed his plans, creeping into the house and surprising Hochberg. He told police that he hit Hochberg in the abdomen and head with the bat before striking him with his fists and putting Hochberg in a headlock.
McKenna wrote that Goetz told him Hochberg "never had a chance" to defend himself and "bragged" that he "threw (Hochberg) around like a rag doll."
"(Goetz) told me that he did not intend to kill Hochberg, but did want to 'hurt him bad' and perhaps 'break his legs,'" McKenna wrote. "While relaying this entire scenario to me, Scott Goetz's attitude more closely resembled pride rather than remorse."
Goetz remains free on bail pending his sentencing. His conditions of release include a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week curfew at his home.
brent.curtis@rutlandherald.com
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