BRKG Josh Duggar found guilty in child sex abuse image trial

[thompson]

Josh Duggar found guilty in child sex abuse image trial

Federal prosecutors contended that the former reality TV star downloaded a Linux partition on his laptop to circumvent computer software that monitors internet use.

www.nbcnews.com

Josh Duggar found guilty in child sex abuse image trial

Federal prosecutors contended that Duggar downloaded a Linux partition on the laptop in order to circumvent a computer software that monitors internet use.

Dec. 9, 2021, 10:36 AM CST / Updated Dec. 9, 2021, 11:45 AM CST
By Doha Madani and Diana Dasrath

Former reality TV star Josh Duggar was convicted Thursday of downloading and possessing child sex abuse images on his work computer.

A federal jury in Fayetteville, Arkansas, found the 33-year-old Duggar 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 at a later date.

“We appreciate the jury’s lengthy deliberations, we respect the jury’s verdict, and we intend to appeal," Duggar's legal team said in a statement to NBC News following the verdict.

Duggar pleaded not guilty to federal charges of receiving and possessing child pornography in Arkansas back in April. Federal prosecutors contended that Duggar downloaded a Linux partition on the laptop in order to circumvent a computer software that monitors internet use.

Evidence presented to the court included logs of Duggar's internet usage, which included downloading the images, sending personal messages, and saving pictures.

Defense attorneys for Duggar denied the allegations during trial, saying someone else downloaded the images and that Duggar's own personal devices were clear of any illicit material.

In the second week of his trial, Duggar’s family friend Bobye Holt testified that he confessed to molesting underage girls during a conversation in 2003, according to NBC affiliate KNWA.

Bobye Holt told the court Duggar had informed them that he touched multiple girls under their pants and underwear, according to KNWA.

Duggar's defense filed a petition to strike Holt from witness list in November, citing clergyman privilege. The filing stated that any statements allegedly made to Holt and her husband were made after Duggar's father requested their spiritual advice.

Both Duggar's father and Holt's husband were elders in their church, according to the petition. Prosecutors opposed the request from the defense, saying in a separate filing that the Holts were among the family's closest friends.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks denied the request and ruled to allow evidence of previous molestation allegations against Duggar in the trial. Brooks said in his order that the prior allegations were “probative of defendant’s sexual interest in underage children.”

Duggar was featured in a reality show on the TLC network with his family called “19 Kids and Counting” that ran from 2008 and 2015. The show chronicled the lives of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their 19 children, of which Duggar was the eldest, and often centered around the family’s religious beliefs as devout Baptists.

In 2015, following an In Touch magazine report that he was investigated for molesting his four younger sisters and a babysitter, Duggar released a statement saying he “acted inexcusably” when he was a teenager. An Arkansas police report indicated Duggar was investigated in 2006 when he was 18. He was never arrested or charged with any crime.

Also in 2015, following the apparent hack of extramarital affairs website Ashley Madison, Duggar was revealed to have frequented the site. He released a statement following reports by The Hollywood Reporter and Gawker saying he was “so ashamed of the double life that I have been living” and apologized to his wife.

He checked himself into a rehabilitation center not long after, according to his mother’s blog at the time.

 

[Krayola]

None of this is that shocking for those that have delved into what the Duggars truly believe and the spiritual leaders they follow. They're a sickening cult-like group that gives true Biblical Christianity a black eye. I feel sorry for the kids, especially the daughters.

 

[Meemur]

The problem: he has 7 children, and his wife is a stay-at-home mom, or so I last heard. Who is going to support them?

I agree that he needs his behind tossed in jail, but something needs to be done long-term for his wife and family. In other situations, the children would be farmed out to relatives and the wife would get some sort of job outside of the home, perhaps in church or at a local bakery, restaurant, or grocery store.

I'm sorry that this has happened to them, but I'm not surprised.

 

[Peter]

None of this is that shocking for those that have delved into what the Duggars truly believe and the spiritual leaders they follow. They're a sickening cult-like group that gives true Biblical Christianity a black eye. I feel sorry for the kids, especially the daughters.

Curious who they follow or what they hold to?

 

[Krayola]

The problem: he has 7 children, and his wife is a stay-at-home mom, or so I last heard. Who is going to support them?

If she continues to play the role of dutiful, long suffering faithful wife and continues to proclaim that he is innocent, Jim Bob will probably support them financially. That would be my guess.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

There are many Christian women who don't believe in cutting their hair short. Many who don't wear pants as a choice, and many who choose to be stay at home moms. That doesn't mean they are part of a cult.

 

[amarilla]

I think part of the cult thought comes from Duggar girls can not have higher education. They are also encouraged to marry early. They are also expected to live at home until marriage. The girls have little chance to determine what God wants them to do.

 

[Deanne]

They got Josh, when are they going to go after Clinton? He is worse

 

[summerthyme]

They got Josh, when are they going to go after Clinton? He is worse

I dunno... Clinton was a horndog, but he at least liked adult women. Duggar is a classic pedophile, and there's only one cure for them.

Summerthyme

 

[Broken Arrow]

I dunno... Clinton was a horndog, but he at least liked adult women. Duggar is a classic pedophile, and there's only one cure for them.

Summerthyme

Didnt Clinton go to Epsteins island? Or am I remembering that wrong?

 

[ChicagoMan74]

Curious who they follow or what they hold to?

Bill Gothard and the IBLP's teachings. Look both up along with his misteachings of the “umbrella of authority” or “umbrella of protection” stuff...which in turn often leads to unhealthy relationships and no accountability for the man in a relationship.

 

[Melodi]

Didnt Clinton go to Epsteins island? Or am I remembering that wrong?

He almost certainly did, but Epstein seems to have been willing to provide whatever a "friend" wanted. It has been alleged he had cameras in many of the rooms, and while we don't know if Clinton was with underaged girls, my impression has been he preferred adult women.

I'm sure Epstein was "happy" to provide those, as well as serving up the underaged to men who wanted them.

 

[summerthyme]

Didnt Clinton go to Epsteins island? Or am I remembering that wrong?

Yeah, I think so. But there were plenty of post pubescent women there, by all reports, even though legally too young. Believe me, I'm not giving Clinton a pass! But most of his stuff was between consenting adults.

The children affected by Duggar will have lifelong issues. Which has led me to question who molested Josh?

Summerthyme

 

[Meemur]

The children affected by Duggar will have lifelong issues. Which has led me to question who molested Josh?

I don't remember where I read it exactly, but it was said that his grandfather did. It was an Internet source, so take that into consideration.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

I think part of the cult thought comes from Duggar girls can not have higher education. They are also encouraged to marry early. They are also expected to live at home until marriage. The girls have little chance to determine what God wants them to do.

Except for the higher learning, society saw the other things you mentioned as normal, once upon a time, before morals went out the window.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

Bill Gothard and the IBLP's teachings. Look both up along with his misteachings of the “umbrella of authority” or “umbrella of protection” stuff...which in turn often leads to unhealthy relationships and no accountability for the man in a relationship.

Thanks. I'll check into that.

 

[Greenspode]

Except for the higher learning, society saw the other things you mentioned as normal, once upon a time, before morals went out the window.

Society saw denying women higher learning was normal as well, for a disturbing amount of time.

What is moral about any of these things?

Women are not possessions, to be dictated to and controlled, without being given the same choices and options in life as men. Being forced to live in the family home, without the option for further education, until pressed into an early marriage, is not the way moral people treat women, or girls. It is slavery, and given the "pressured into marriage" it has more than a passing similarity to sexual slavery. Nothing moral about that.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

Society saw denying women higher learning was normal as well, for a disturbing amount of time.

What is moral about any of these things?

Women are not possessions, to be dictated to and controlled, without being given the same choices and options in life as men. Being forced to live in the family home, without the option for further education, until pressed into an early marriage, is not the way moral people treat women, or girls. It is slavery, and given the "pressured into marriage" it has more than a passing similarity to sexual slavery. Nothing moral about that.

Didn't say anything about women being possessions in any way. It's just that different Christians view Scripture in different ways. There is much said about women, morals, authority, submission, etc in the Bible. Different Christians interpret the meanings differently. To lump all Christian women that have a stricter interpretation of some of these views as belonging to a cult is wrong, IMHO. FWIW, I hold to a stricter interpretation of some of these beliefs, myself, but am in no way following a man or involved with a cult in any way.

For the sake of not being misunderstood further, I'll just back off, until I can check into what all the Duggars believe.

 

[Greenspode]

Didn't say anything about women being possessions in any way. It's just that different Christians view Scripture in different ways. There is much said about women, morals, authority, submission, etc in the Bible. Different Christians interpret the meanings differently. To lump all Christian women that have a stricter interpretation of some of these views as belonging to a cult is wrong, IMHO. FWIW, I hold to a stricter interpretation of some of these beliefs, myself, but am in no way following a man or involved with a cult in any way.

For the sake of not being misunderstood further, I'll just back off, until I can check into what all the Duggars believe.

I understand what you are saying. I was thinking of it as more of an overall morality position, as opposed to a cult v. not cult approach.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

I understand what you are saying. I was thinking of it as more of an overall morality position, as opposed to a cult v. not cult approach.

.....And I wasn't getting my point across too well. I have no idea what the Duggar's doctrinal beliefs are, except what I've seen of them on their TV show. That's what I was basing my understanding on.

 

[anna43]

As adults the Dugger's children are making their own choices and at least one gal cut her hair. One of the biggest criticisms I've heard about the family is having too many children. My thought on that is why is it anyone else's business. They are not raising their family on government benefits. Josh aside all seem to be law abiding and self-supporting adults.

As far as Josh's wife is concerned, to the Duggers family is everything so I'm sure she and her children will be cared for. They lived with the senior Duggers the first time Josh got into trouble. Also, she has her own family who might help her. Failing that, she is just as entitled to government benefits as any other woman in her position.

From watching the show it appeared to me that the kids were allowed to make their own choices. That they chose to follow their parents teachings, shows respect for their parents instead of a cult like enforcement of those choices. Having unswerving support and love from parents is one of the most valuable things we can offer our children and it appears that is exactly what the Duggers were providing.

No matter how much a parent tries, some children/adults choose the wrong path. They were loved and taught right from wrong, but still choose the wrong path.

 

[WanderLore]

I thought I saw an episode where one or two of the girls and boy joined the local fire dept. And I remember an episode where the dad taught the girls how to do some pretty thorough maintenance on the vehicles.
Big families can be wonderful. Unfortunately there always seems to be that bad seed.

 

[WanderLore]

I know several families that are quite large. And they follow similar guidelines. They are all pretty good people.
Josh needs to rot though.

 

[Krayola]

I have no idea what the Duggar's doctrinal beliefs are, except what I've seen of them on their TV show. That's what I was basing my understanding on.

This web site (link below) has a lot of info on Gothard, ATI and IBLP. Much of it is heart breaking to read.

https://www.recoveringgrace.org

I remember the first time I saw the Duggar family on TV, I thought they appeared to be a nice Christian family (although the way the daughters were made to dress was a red flag.)

Some years later, I found out their association with Bill Gothard and the Institute in Basic Life Principles and the way they treat sexual abuse victims made me want to vomit. I feel sorry for their daughters. This is what they teach the girls when they are sexually abused. It is no wonder that sexual abuse/perversion runs rampant in that group. I am reposting the info below from another recent Duggar thread: (by the way, this is just the tip of the iceberg, there's much more)

Points 1 and 2 downplay the sexual abuse victim’s physical suffering as damage to the “least important” part of a person, with no mention of other possible effects of abuse.

Point 3 condemns the victim for self-damage (presumably to mind, will, and emotions left untouched by the abuser) and rebukes the victim for feeling not only bitterness, but also guilt.

Point 4 explicitly suggests that the victim invited the abuse by enticing the abuser or by earning divine wrath. This is a particularly stark example of Gothard’s theology: Gothard presents a God who passively or actively allows sexual abuse as just punishment for “immodest dress,” “indecent exposure,” “being out from under protection of our parents,” or “being with evil friends.” When this document was published, the IBLP operational definition of the term “defraud” was “to stir up desires that cannot be righteously fulfilled,” and a version of this definition is still used by IBLP. In the IBLP document, “Lessons From Moral Failures in a Family,” this concept of modesty and temptation is also applied to the sexual abuse of very young children.

Point 5 explicitly speculates that the sexual abuse victim is likely guilty for some part of the abuse or its aftermath, and appears to directly contradict Point 3, which reprimanded the victim for damaging his or her soul with guilt. “Moral vaccination” seems to reference a concept Gothard shared in seminars and conferences in the 1980s, when he told the story of a woman who struggled with unwanted sexual thoughts and eventually was raped. In the anecdote, Gothard described the rape and the woman’s subsequent aversion to sexuality as inoculation against lust.

Point 6 leads with the default assumption that the abused is usually at least partly at fault, presenting the guiltless abuse victim as an exception. This guiltless victim is told what great spiritual power he or she can expect to be compensated with after being sexually violated. While it appears that we have at last reached a bullet point that doesn’t chide or censure sexual abuse survivors, Point 6 has a dark reverse side that makes it as toxic as Point 4; if the abuse victim is not experiencing all seven evidences of being “mighty in Spirit,” does that mean he or she was not truly faultless in the abuse?

If a survivor of sexual abuse does not adequately exhibit “spiritual discernment” and “creativity,” or feel “energy, enthusiasm, joy,” and “inner peace,” is that evidence of guilt or complicity in one’s own abuse? The standard for being “not at fault” is not only to have demonstrated perfect modesty and obedience before the abuse (by IBLP definitions) and to have harbored no guilt or “bitterness” after the abuse, but also to demonstrate seven arbitrary qualities of an extraordinary super-Christian soon after the abuse. It is a subjective test of guiltlessness few could pass.

Point 7 is an interesting choice of Biblical example of sexual abuse, but has some merit. Here Gothard conflates correlation with causation, indicating that Daniel’s wisdom, understanding, and position were direct compensations for physical trauma. Also telling is the absence of rape victims Dinah and Tamar as examples of guiltless survivors. Other IBLP materials denounce these women for inviting or failing to thwart their own abuse.

Point 8 presents a vicious false dichotomy that pressures the abuse victim to symbolically “choose” sexual abuse as a necessary accompaniment or gateway to being “mighty in Spirit.” This is not mere acceptance that the past cannot be changed, nor just a choice to make something positive of the situation going forward; this is a theoretical active choice in favor of being abused. Here Gothard defies his own admonitions to his followers to avoid answering questions about hypothetical situations.

Points 9 and 10 echo Points 1-3 in condemning any “bitterness” the victim may feel — and by word count this is apparently a far greater concern than the sexual abuse itself. The document presumes to know the exact reason for any “bitterness” on the part of the survivor: “He damaged your body.” No other reasons for anger or pain are considered here, and no other possible negative effects of sexual abuse are mentioned. In a trichotomistic document that asserts the importance of the soul over the body and the primacy of the spirit over both of these, negative effects on the victim are relegated exclusively to the lowest level, the physical, then effectively dismissed as petty.

This slyly suggests that any continued pain or difficulty the survivor experiences is the result of carnality or insufficient dedication of the spirit to God. The document assumes that the victim is not already dedicated to God, and was likely not adequately dedicated to God at the time of sexual assault. Point 9 is a master stroke of passive aggression against survivors who would dare express any ongoing spiritual or emotional distress resulting from their sexual abuse. It silences survivors whose stories have not yet culminated in complete spiritual triumph.

Instead of the usual IBLP language of tearing down strongholds, reclaiming surrendered ground, and replacing strongholds with “towers of truth,” Point 10 advises victims to reclaim surrendered ground and “cleanse with rhemas.” This contextually unusual choice of language is darkly jarring in light of the feelings of being dirty that so many sexual abuse survivors report experiencing. Point 10 subtly supports the idea that sexual abuse survivors are in special need of purification.

The damaging potential of “Counseling Sexual Abuse” is not theoretical. The damage has already happened. The teachings outlined in this document have had devastating effects in the lives of real people. Click here to read one story directly affected by these teachings.

source: How “Counseling Sexual Abuse” Blames and Shames Survivors

I have read some of the survivors' stories at Recovering Grace and it is sickening and makes my blood boil. Gothard (who finally had to resign due his own pervy scandals) taught the sick crap outlined above and the Duggars promoted him on their show and used his materials to home school their kids. I think I read that the "counseling center" that they sent Josh as a teen (when he molested his sisters) was also affiliated with that Gothard creep.

 

[Terriannie]

I watched that show from the beginning and it's a sorrow to me knowing what they're going to go through, especially his wife who dumbly, blindly believed him.

Will rotting in prison finally help her and the rest of his family FINALLY wake up to the fact that there are just some black sheep in families that are blacker than most & the only One that Josh needs to connect with from here on out, is his Judge and Creator?

 

[SouthernBreeze]

Thanks for the info on Gothard. I had no idea who he was, or what he taught. What I just read, I can't go along with at all. Totally blaming the victim in every case of being the one at fault is not biblical in any sense of interpretation.

 

[mistaken1]

None of this is that shocking for those that have delved into what the Duggars truly believe and the spiritual leaders they follow. They're a sickening cult-like group that gives true Biblical Christianity a black eye. I feel sorry for the kids, especially the daughters.

That is why they were on left-wing TeeVee.

 

[Siskiyoumom]

The problem: he has 7 children, and his wife is a stay-at-home mom, or so I last heard. Who is going to support them?

I agree that he needs his behind tossed in jail, but something needs to be done long-term for his wife and family. In other situations, the children would be farmed out to relatives and the wife would get some sort of job outside of the home, perhaps in church or at a local bakery, restaurant, or grocery store.

I'm sorry that this has happened to them, but I'm not surprised.

I have no issue with him being incarcerated.
His wife will have to do what thousands of spouses do when the husband or wife are in prison.
Find a job.
Her large extended family will most likely give her help.
He is a predator.

 

[BinWa]

He’s a child predator with 7 young children of his own. I can only imagine what horrific stories his own children will tell one day.

 

[Faroe]

I have no issue with him being incarcerated.
His wife will have to do what thousands is spouses do when the husband or wife are in prison.
Find a job.
Her large extended family will most likely give her help.
He is a predator.

Well, I think he should be hung, but yeah.
The wife can go on welfare like every other woman who had kids by a man who won't support them.
Not my problem, and not something I'm inclined to worry about anyway.

 

[Meemur]

His wife will have to do what thousands is spouses do when the husband or wife are in prison.
Find a job.

I agree. However, she has few marketable skills. This is why I'm cringing over what will happen to those 7 children. I do hope Jim Bob steps up. She'll be barely able to support herself with a minimum wage job.

 

[anna43]

Do we really know what Anna's skill set is? Do we know what education she has? Do we know what family support she has from her family or the Duggers? The answer is no and quite frankly it is none of our business. What we should do is pray for her and her children that they will receive the support they need and be comforted in dealing with husband and daddy in prison. One thing we do know is Anna is a good mother so her kids will be okay. The kids will be adults before he's out so effectively they no longer have a father. Also, while he is a pedophile who needs to be locked up, we do not know whether he was a good loving father to them that they will miss or a someone they are glad to never see again. I was once spouting off about a situation in a friend's family and my grandmother told me that no knows what goes on behind closed doors and I shouldn't be commenting on something I know nothing about.

 

[Knoxville's Joker]

Do we really know what Anna's skill set is? Do we know what education she has? Do we know what family support she has from her family or the Duggers? The answer is no and quite frankly it is none of our business. What we should do is pray for her and her children that they will receive the support they need and be comforted in dealing with husband and daddy in prison. One thing we do know is Anna is a good mother so her kids will be okay. The kids will be adults before he's out so effectively they no longer have a father. Also, while he is a pedophile who needs to be locked up, we do not know whether he was a good loving father to them that they will miss or a someone they are glad to never see again. I was once spouting off about a situation in a friend's family and my grandmother told me that no knows what goes on behind closed doors and I shouldn't be commenting on something I know nothing about.

Well if they end up in foster care, the sibling group will be split up. They will find many traumas and will probably bar sibling association in some cases.

I am more concerned that there will be a termination of parental rights.

 

[cyberiot]

I think I read that the "counseling center" that they sent Josh as a teen (when he molested his sisters) was also affiliated with that Gothard creep.

Hard saying. According to USA Today, mother Michelle Duggar said Josh didn't actually go to a counseling center. Instead, father Jim Bob Duggar took Josh to Joseph Hutchens, "a state trooper and personal friend, for a 'stern talk' . . . "

Lo and behold, "Joseph Hutchens . . . is currently serving 56 years in an Arkansas prison on child pornography charges."

Read the complete article here:

Ex-trooper: Duggars hid full extent of abuse

Disgraced trooper's failure to report the abuse had resulted in closing of case.

www.usatoday.com