Tina Marie Hughes
Criminal Court Judge Amanda Dunn has ruled that a federal agent based in Canada will have to come to Chattanooga to testify in an upcoming child rape case.
Prosecutor Charlie Minor had sought to have the agent appear as a witness by video call.
He said the agent is deputy attache at his office and he will have to step up to cover as attache at the time the trial of Tina Marie Hughes is going on.
Prosecutor Minor said generally federal agents are not compelled to appear personally in state court.
However, Judge Dunn said the ability for the defendant to personally confront the witness is more important than accommodating the agent.
Prosecutor Minor said the agent is a "chain of custody" witness and not a vital witness.
Defense attorney Dan Ripper disagreed, saying the agent used a special technique to extract evidence from the phone of Ms. Hughes.
The case is set for Tuesday of next week.
Ms. Hughes is charged with four counts of rape of a child, four counts of aggravated sexual battery, 10 counts of especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of sexual exploitation of a minor. On the latter charge, there were more than 100 child images, it was stated.