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In just two weeks Josh Duggar will stand trial on child pornography charges.
If he’s convicted, he faces 20 years in prison.
The deadline for Josh to accept a plea deal has come and gone, which means he intends to roll the dice on the possibility that he’ll be acquitted despite the fact that federal agents found dozens of explicit images and videos on devices seized from his office — devices that they claim were solely used by Josh.
No wonder his defense team is getting desperate.
As we reported earlier this month, the prosecution has requested permission to use Josh’s past sex crimes against him during his upcoming trial.
It was revealed in 2015 that while he was still in his teens, Josh molested five young girls, four of whom were his sisters.
The fifth was a babysitter hired by his parents — the same parents who used their clout to help Josh avoid prosecution.
Now, however, it looks as though the 33-year-old might finally be held accountable for his first set of sex crimes (that we know of) as he stands trial for his more recent misconduct.
The prosecution is arguing that briefing the jury on the assaults that came to light in 2015 will allow them to establish a pattern of behavior that indicates “sexual interest in young girls.”
Not surprisingly, the defense is desperately trying to have this evidence suppressed.
In their latest hail Mary attempt at keeping the truth out of the courtroom, Josh’s lawyers are arguing that he might not have molested those girls after all.
“There is no question the allegations at issue arise at a time when Duggar was a child and the allegations at issue in this case arise at a time when Duggar was in his 30’s,” the filing reads according to a new report from The Sun.
“Furthermore, there is no question Duggar was never charged with a crime related to those allegations.”
That’s when the lawyers really swing for the fences, claiming that since the reports have been redacted in order to protect the victims from further scrutiny, it’s not actually clear that a crime has been committed!
They claim the filing is “unclear” if the “uncharged allegations actually constitute a crime” of sexual assault in the second degree “under Arkansas state law.”
“The Report is heavily redacted and, importantly, includes no names or dates of birth of anyone involved making it exceedingly difficult for anyone, much less this Court in ruling on the application of Rule 414, to determine whether Duggar actually committed the acts alleged in the Report and whether the conduct, if committed, constituted a crime, particularly in light of the affirmative defenses clearly set out in the statute,” the lawyers claim.
Obviously, this is a new low for Team Josh, and it indicates just how desperate his situation has become.
Thus far, the judge in Josh’s case has suppressed five motions to dismiss evidence, all of them based on the defense’s flimsy claims that the evidence was mishandled or illegally obtained.
Insiders say the defense had planned to argue that the seized devices don’t belong to Josh, but the prosecution’s evidence to the contrary — which includes photos of Josh using the computers — has been ruled admissible at pre-trial hearings.
In other words, Josh is probably starting to wish he could go back in time and accept that plea deal.
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