Someone missed the message after Reno County District Judge Joe McCarville ruled last Thursday 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, and set a hearing for Thursday afternoon. Someone didn’t hear the judge say that he wanted the defendant, Matthew Sundgren to remain in the county jail until after the hearing.

He’s already serving time in prison and awaiting sentencing in two other cases and wants to with draw his plea citing ineffective counsel by Sarah McKinnon who heads the Regional Public Defenders Office and is running for District Attorney against Keith Schroeder.

Because Sundgren was sent back to prison without anyone knowing that, the hearing is continued to October 29 at 8:30 a.m.

Sundgren entered a plea to auto burglary in one case, and felony theft in another and claims ineffective counsel stating that he believes that he was either misled, coerced, mistreated, or unfairly taken advantage of. He also claims he was coerced into entering the plea and misled on how it would effect his post release supervision with the case he’s serving time on now.

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.

The state had planned to call McKinnon to the stand Thursday, but now that will have to wait.

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.