A spokeswoman for Jaycee Dugard, who was kidnapped as a young girl and held captive for 18 years, criticized the purported sale of unauthorized photos of Dugard and her daughters to media outlets.
The criticism came as key questions were raised Friday over the mental competency of Phillip Garrido to stand trial in Dugard's 1991 kidnapping.
In a statement Friday, Nancy Seltzer said Dugard, now 30, is not a celebrity and neither are her two minor age girls, and that they should be able to “lead as normal a life as possible without being treated as a curiosity by onlookers and their cameras.”
"Someone wise once told me that our privacy was dependent on the morality of the one doing the observing," said Seltzer. "I'm saddened by the photos of Jaycee and her daughters being offered to the media.”
Seltzer told KCRA 3 the photos were taken last weekend. She said she doesn't know who took the photographs, but a U.S. photo agency is selling the pictures.
Seltzer also told KCRA two tabloid magazines confirmed they purchased the pictures but have agreed to blur the faces of the daughters.
In her statement, Seltzer said: "While I thank those publications choosing to blur the images of Jaycee's daughters' faces, I can only feel shame for those who took the photos and who think this is right."
Dugard was 11 years old when she was abducted near her South Lake Tahoe home in 1991. Authorities say she was held in captivity for nearly two decades and repeatedly raped. She was found last August after Garrido, a sex offender, was questioned by some University of California, Berkeley officers and by his parole officer.
At the time, Garrido was on lifetime supervision for the 1976 kidnapping and rape of a South Lake Tahoe woman.
Garrido and his wife, Nancy, were charged with kidnapping, rape and more than two dozen other crimes in connection with the Dugard case and are awaiting trial.
Dugard bore two daughters to Garrido in captivity.
Garrido made a three-minute appearance court Friday, the Sacramento Bee newspaper reported.
An El Dorado Superior Court judge said there still is a question over whether officials will seek a psychological exam of Garrido before the case goes forward.
Garrido's attorney, Susan Gellman, did not address the issue in open court during a three-minute hearing this afternoon, but the judge indicated that the matter had come up in a private meeting before court began, the Bee said.
The case is set to go to a preliminary hearing Oct. 7, during which prosecutors will attempt to show that there is enough evidence to move to trial on kidnapping and rape charges against Garrido and his wife, Nancy, the Bee said.