Reno County District Judge Joe McCarville ruled Thursday afternoon that the original attorney for a 28-year-old Hutchinson man must testify as to what advice she gave him to get him to enter a plea.

Matthew Sundgren is already serving time in prison and awaiting sentencing in two other cases.

He entered a plea to auto burglary in one case, and felony theft in another and is now claiming ineffective counsel from Sarah Sweet-McKinnon who heads the Regional Public Defenders Office. He made the initial request while she was his attorney and she was then taken off his case.

His current attorney Alice Osburn filed a motion for Sundgren which states that he believes he was either misled, coerced, mistreated, or unfairly taken advantage of. The motion also questions whether the plea was fairly and understandingly made by Sundgren.

The motion goes on to say he believes he’s innocent of the charges and claims he was coerced into entering the plea and misled on how it would effect his post release supervision status.

The state filed a motion of their own seeking the judges permission to subpoena McKinnon and compel her to testify. That was granted by the judge who says it falls under the exception rule of attorney-client privilege. The state wants to determine if in fact he had ineffective counsel.

So, another hearing has been scheduled for October 11, so that state can call McKinnon to the stand. Should she refuse, she could be found in contempt which happened to her once before. However, she appealed and won that appeal in the previous case.

In one of the cases in question, Sundgren entered a plea to felony theft with two or more priors for stealing from Dillard’s back on November 26, 2011.

In the second case, he entered a plea to misdemeanor theft for taking a 2004 Ford Explorer without permission. That was on November 25, 2011.

Sundgren is serving a prison sentence for unlawful manufacturing of methamphetamine in a case from Riley County, going back to 2005.