Josh Duggar and prosecutors are battling over photos federal officials say show a hand scar matching images on the devices in his child-porn case
Josh Duggar's defense team says it's "troubling" that federal agents took pictures of the reality TV star's hands and feet from "awkward angles."
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- Josh Duggar's defense team is arguing with prosecutors over photos federal agents took of his hands.
- The former reality-TV star is scheduled to stand trial in November on child-pornography charges.
- Prosecutors said photos showed a scar on Duggar's hand that was also seen in images on his devices.
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Josh Duggar's defense team has been arguing with federal prosecutors for weeks over pictures of the former reality-TV star's hands and feet, which Duggar's team said should never have been taken.
Duggar's team filed a document on Thursday evening that requested, for the second time, that a judge bar prosecutors from using the photos during the upcoming November trial in Arkansas.
Duggar, formerly of TLC's "19 Kids and Counting," faces two charges of receiving and possessing child pornography. He has pleaded not guilty.
The photos in question show the backs of Duggar's hands and his feet, which are clad in black sneakers.
United States District Court Western District of Arkansas Fayetteville Division
Duggar's defense team has said prosecutors didn't obtain a warrant to take the photos and took them without an attorney present.
Duggar's attorneys also scoffed at prosecutors' explanation that the photos were intended to document a scar on Duggar's hand. Prosecutors previously said the scar could also be seen in multiple images recovered from the devices that federal authorities seized from Duggar.
Prosecutors also argued that Duggar "expressly consented to having the photographs taken," and that authorities never violated Duggar's Fourth Amendment or Sixth Amendment rights.
In its Thursday-evening court filing, Duggar's team said that if the intent behind the photos was to document Duggar's scar, authorities would have only photographed one hand, instead of both hands and both feet.
The attorneys also accused the federal agents who took the photos of "manipulation" of Duggar's body. They said their client was instructed to pose with different hand and foot positions, and that the camera shot the photographs from various "awkward angles."
"What is more troubling about the Government's after-the-fact rationalization is that the agent taking the photographs presumably had to stand behind Duggar and reach over his shoulder to obtain the angle reflected in the photographs," Duggar's defense team wrote.