Lubbock man's arraignment hearing delayed

CLOVIS — An arraignment hearing scheduled for a Lubbock man accused of second-degree murder was delayed Monday when the accused objected to the judge who was assigned his case.

Steven Hogues, 34, was indicted in January by a Curry County grand jury in connection to the fatal shooting of William Romero. Hogues, arrested Nov. 23 in Amarillo without incident, is accused of shooting Romero the day before in the course of an argument.

He has been booked in the Curry County Adult Detention Center since Jan. 7, following extradition from Texas.

Hogues, appearing via videoconference, raised an objection prior to his arraignment. He noted a prosecutor in the Ninth Judicial District Attorney’s office is the wife of District Judge Fred Van Soelen.

A disclosure of employment was filed on the case in January, noting that although Erin Van Soelen works as an assistant district attorney, she is assigned to the Portales office and neither inspects, reviews nor discusses any cases assigned to her husband’s court in Clovis.

The case is being tried by Deputy District Attorney Jake Boazman, with Chief Deputy District Attorney Brian Stover standing in for him Monday.

Hogues did not consider that adequate, and requested Van Soelen recuse himself. Van Soelen honored the request, and said the matter would resume under another judge. The case was assigned to Judge Drew Tatum on Monday afternoon.

Hogues said he also planned to hire his own attorney rather than use Ira John Shiflett, a public defender assigned to the case.

The case was initially scheduled for a May 18 jury selection with the trial starting May 30.