Josh Duggar, former ’19 Kids and Counting’ star, could face 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 for each count when he’s sentenced
The former reality star was tried in Fayetteville where he was found guilty on one count each of receiving and possessing child pornography. He faces up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 for each count when he’s sentenced.
“Regardless of wealth, social status, or fame, our office will continue to seek out all individuals who seek to abuse children and victimize them through the downloading, possession, and sharing of child pornography,” said U.S. Attorney Clay Fowlkes of the western district of Arkansas, which prosecuted the case.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks said sentencing will happen in about four months, Fayetteville TV station KNWA reported.
“We respect the jury’s verdict and we look forward to continuing this fight on appeal,” said Justin Gelfand, one of Duggar’s defense attorneys.
Josh Duggar and his obscenely large Arkansas family were the stars of TLC’s now-canceled “19 Kids and Counting”. The show was canceled in 2015 when Josh confessed to molesting four of his sister and a babysitter. He has been under investigation since 2006 though when authorities received a tip from a family friend.
Unfortunately, authorities couldn’t do much with those allegations since the statute of limitations was up on any possible charges.
That wasn’t the end of the Josh Duggar saga as we know.
He publicly apologized for unspecified behavior and resigned as a lobbyist for the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group. Once his pornography addiction was revealed, Josh Duggar had to apologize for that and for cheating on his wife.
The judge in the child porn case ruled that jurors could hear testimony about how in 2003, Duggar admitted to molesting four girls. A family friend testified that Duggar told her about the abuse.
Federal authorities said they began investigating after a Little Rock police detective found child porn files were being shared by a computer traced to Duggar. A federal agent testified in May that images depicting the sexual abuse of children, including toddlers, were downloaded in 2019 onto a computer at a car dealership Duggar owned.
US Attorneys in the case held a press conference outside the courthouse after the verdict was announced.
“This case represents a significant milestone for the Western District of Arkansas and our continued efforts to combat child abuse. Those who would say that children who were photographed and videoed in a manner similar to the evidence in this case are not abused and are not victims are clearly wrong. Children who are photographed and videoed in manners such as this are the victims and every time their videos and photos are traded online, uploaded, and downloaded from the internet, they are victimized again,” one of the U.S. attorneys said.
His defense attorneys used the basic “it wasn’t his fault” defense. His attorneys argued that it wasn’t Josh Duggar who was responsible for the child porn on his computer, but someone else downloaded or placed it onto the computer at his workplace. This was feasible in their eyes because there was no child pornography found on Duggar’s personal phone or laptop.
His father, Jim Bob, testified and confirmed that Josh did go to him around 2002 stating that he inappropriately touched four minor girls. But he just couldn’t remember anything about the conversation.
I don’t know, if my son came to me admitting to being a serial child molester those are conversations I’d remember.
Josh Duggar’s case happened to start around the same time as Ghislaine Maxwell‘s case in New York. Her case is a cacophony of corruption though.
Hopefully, these cases are the turning point we need to see these horrid child predators face the consequences of their heinous actions.
