The Cass County Memorial Hospital’s Board of Trustees will hold a Special Meeting today at 7:30. The agenda says the Board will enter into a Closed Session per Iowa Code [21.5 (1)(i)]. When they emerge from the Closed Session, the Board may take action on the matter before them.

While it’s not clear what the subject of the closed session may be, over the weekend, it was learned that an attorney retained on behalf of Cass County Health System CEO Todd Hudspeth, Thursday, had entered a written Alford Plea for Hudspeth, with regard to Hudspeth’s felony Forgery charge in Buena Vista County.

Legal experts say an Alford Plea is a guilty plea by a defendant who proclaims he is innocent of the crime, and admits that the prosecution has enough evidence to prove that he is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. It is entered when the accused, together with his attorney, has made the calculated decision to plead guilty because the evidence against him is so strong that it will likely lead to conviction. Typically, it results in a guilty plea of a lesser crime

A jury trial was set to begin in Hudspeth’s case on July 12th, but with his plea, a pre-sentence investigation (PSI) will now take place August 1st, during what’s called a “Plea taking.”