Josh Duggar loses bids to dismiss child pornography case and suppress evidence including photos of his hands and feet from upcoming trial
- District Judge Timothy L. Brooks filed a memo that explained why the motions to suppress evidence in the child pornography case against Duggar were rejected
- Duggar's attorneys filed a motion to dismiss Duggar's case entirely claiming investigators failed to 'preserve potentially exculpatory evidence'
- His attorneys also and filed a motion to suppress photos taken of Duggar's hands and feet which they claimed he was 'manipulated' into posing for
- Judge Brooks ruled that authorities did not need a warrant to photograph Duggar's hands therefore his fourth Amendment rights were not violated
A judge has denied four motions by Josh Duggar to suppress evidence and dismiss the child pornography case against him.
Duggar - best known for being a part of his family's hit reality show, 19 Kids and Counting - is charged with downloading and possessing pornographic images of children under 12 years old, which he denies.
Last month, his attorneys filed a string of motions asking for evidence to be left out of the case - including photographs of his hands taken by law enforcement which authorities say show a scar that matches those in images seized from his digital device.
The 33-year-old was arrested in April and subsequently bailed out of jail and has spent the intervening months living at a property in rural Arkansas.
On Wednesday, District Judge Timothy L. Brooks filed a memo that explained why he was dismissing all four motions filed by Duggar's legal team.
Josh Duggar was seen last month for the first time since he was released from prison on bail following his arrest on child porn charges in April
On April 29, 2021 law enforcement took three high angle photographs of Duggar's open hands over his feet while he was in custody
Duggar was seen in public for the first time in months on September 27 attending an evidentiary hearing at a Fayetteville court ahead of his trial, which is scheduled to commence November 3.
During that court appearance Duggar's attorneys filed a motion to dismiss Duggar's case entirely claiming investigators failed to 'preserve potentially exculpatory evidence.'
They also filed a motion to suppress statements Duggar allegedly made to agents during the course of their investigation, as well as a motion to suppress photos taken of Duggar's hands and feet.
'All motions were denied from the bench following an in-person evidentiary hearing on September 27, 2021. The Court has orally explained its reasons for denying the motions; the following Order provides further explanation. To the extent anything in this Order differs from what was stated from the bench, this Order will control,' Judge Brooks write in his memo, Fox News reported.
According to Brooks, when authorities first arrived to Duggar's business in November of 2019 they told him he was free to leave and that agents were not at fault for conducting an interview with Duggar inside of a car.
'It is also undisputed that the passenger-side door next to where Mr. Duggar was seated remained unlocked throughout the interview. The Court therefore finds that Mr. Duggar was not restrained, and this factor weighs in the Government's favor,' Brooks wrote.
Duggar, 33, was charged back in April with two counts of receiving and possessing child pornography. He has pleaded not guilty
Duggar was seen in early May when he was bailed out of an Arkansas prison
The filing goes on to say that Duggar was advised of his right to an attorney and still chose to speak to authorities.
'Not only did Mr. Duggar sign a form demonstrating he understood he was waiving his right to counsel, but he also manifested a clear understanding of the waiver and the voluntariness of his actions by reminding the agents before questioning began that he ''may not answer everything,'' Brooks wrote.
Duggar's attorneys also argued that authorities violated his fourth amendment rights by photographing his hands and feet and that they needed a warrant before doing so.
'There is no legal authority to suggest agents needed a warrant before they could photograph Mr. Duggar's hands and feet. Mr. Duggar consented to being photographed. Therefore, no Fourth Amendment violation occurred,' Brooks ruled.
Duggar's team has tried to suppress three high angle photographs of Duggar's open hands over his feet taken in April 2021 while he was in custody, the Sun reported.
His attorneys claimed it was 'egregious' that Duggar's body parts were 'manipulated and he was required to pose for the photographs.'
Duggar and his wife Anna share kids Mackynzie, Marcus, Meredith, Mason and Maryella together. Anna is set to give birth to their seventh child in late next month
The reality star was not seen walking around the grounds of the property and it did not appear his wife and children came to visit
Duggar was busted in 2019 after Detective Amber Kalmer of the Little Rock Police Department accessed his files while working on an undercover online investigation to unmask perverts using it to trade images, according to court documents obtained by DailyMail.com.
Authorities allegedly discovered that Duggar kept his trove of child pornography on his work PC hidden behind a screenshot of his family,
Cops seized the HP laptop from Duggar's office when they raided his Arkansas car dealership in 2019 to search for evidence of illegal downloads.
The computer's home screen featured a wholesome family portrait of his family.
But when experts delved into the device's hard drive they allegedly uncovered sickening images of prepubescent children engaged in sex acts.
Detective Kalmer claimed she was able to locate two files: a zip folder containing 65 image files of naked girls aged between seven and nine, and a two minute video of a similarly-aged girl being raped by an adult man.
After pleading not guilty to child pornography charges Duggar has been confined to the home of family friends who agreed to be his custodian during his release. He is prohibited from using any Internet-accessible devices as he awaits trial.
Duggar's family rose to fame on reality show, 19 Kids and Counting which ran on TLC from 2008 to 2015.
The reality show was canceled in 2015 following the allegations that Duggar had molested his sisters and a babysitter. Duggar's parents said he confessed to the fondling and apologized.
Duggar previously apologized for a pornography addiction and cheating on his wife, Anna, who is pregnant with their seventh child.
The Duggar family in 2014. Their show, 19 Kids & Counting, ran from 2008 until 2015
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