[ad_1]
The Josh Duggar trial is officially underway.
On Tuesday morning, the father of seven arrived at a courthouse in Fayetteville, Arkansas to face two charges of child pornography possession.
He didn’t arrive alone, however.
Just as she did at multiple hearings over the past several weeks, Anna Duggar held hands with her seemingly unethical husband on the way inside the building.
According to various sources, Anna also sat in the front row for Josh’s pre-trial hearing on Monday.
It was during this three-hour session on Monday that Jim Bob Duggar was actually called on to testify, firing back at the judge after he got grilled about his son’s previous molestation scandal.
Josh, of course, was arrested in late Apriland charged with receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The admitted cheater also welcomed a daughter into the world on October 23, a newborn he and Anna named Madyson Lily.
The two also share Mackynzie Renée, 12, Michael James, 10, Marcus Anthony, 8, Meredith Grace, 6, Mason Garrett, 4, and Maryella Hope, 2.
Despite Josh having confessed to infidelity… and also confessed to inappropriately touching four little girls when he was a young teenager… Anna has remained steadfast.
She has stuck by her spouse’s side.
“She thinks Josh is innocent,” a source told People Magazine this summer.
Other insiders, meanwhile, have claimed that Anna frequently ditched her kids in order to spend the night with Josh at the home of the guardians appointed to Josh by a judge in May.
“Family members are extremely concerned by what is happening and they just want to find out the truth,” The Sun reported shortly after Duggar’s arrest, adding of his brainwashed wife:
“They are praying together for Josh and Anna, who is standing by her husband as she always has.”
During Monday’s evidentiary hearing for Josh, a family friend named Bobye Holt testified.
She said that her daughter was actually dating the oldest Duggar child and there was talk of an engagement… until Josh’s parents called her over in March 2003 and told them Josh had molested multiple minors.
Including his own sisters.
In court, these victims were all referred to as Jane Doe.
“[Josh] explained that Jane Doe four was sitting on his lap during Bible time and he touched her inappropriately,” Holt told the judge yesterday.
“He said it happened that day. On that date, he told us that he touched her vaginal area.”
Only later did she learn, Bobye explained, that Josh touched the girl under her clothes.
Josh also admitted to touching three other girls, Bobye said, each of them on their breasts and genitals.
This topic is once again being broached because the prosecution wants to present evidence of Duggar’s molestation scandal at his trial.
They believe it speaks to a pattern of behavior that is relevant to the aforementioned pornography possession charges.
The defense team, conversely, sees this case differently.
“Let’s have a trial about what actually happened in May of 2019” and nothing else, said one of Josh’s attorneys, Justin Gelfand, in court on Monday, arguing that the focus of this trial should solely be on the material Duggar allegedly downloaded from his workplace computer.
If convicted of the charges against him, the former 19 Kids and Counting star faces up to 20 years of imprisonment and up to $250,000 in fines on each of the two counts.
This would be a total possible sentence of 40 years behind bars.
Jury selection in Josh’s trial began on Tuesday.
He is currently free on bail, under very strict restrictions.
[ad_2]
Source link
