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One day into his child pornography trial, Josh Duggar has suffered his first defeat.
And it may be a big one.
On Wednesday morning, Judge Timothy L. Brooks ruled that the prosecution can admit Duggar’s past molestation scandal as evidence to the jury if it so desires, striking down an objection previously made by Josh’s defense team.
At a pre-trial hearing on Monday, a close family friend — whose daughter was dating Josh in 2002 and 2003 — detailed to the judge how she learned Duggar groped at least four minors starting at the age of 12.
Taking the stand, Bobye Holt tearfully recounted how Josh admitted many years ago to touching multiple young girls on their breasts and inside their genitals…
… while they read the bible on his lap.
“I went to go tell Jim Bob and Michelle, but they said they didn’t want to hear it,” Bobye added, referring to Josh’s infamous parents.
Josh confessed to most of these molestation accusations in 2015.
However, his attorneys had been trying to argue that the scandal is unrelated to the allegation that Duggar downloaded sexually graphic videos of young kids from his workplace computer two and a half years.
“Let’s have a trial about what actually happened in May of 2019,” one of Duggar’s attorneys urged the judge on Monday.
Conversely, the prosection has stated that Josh’s actions as a teenager establish a pattern of behavior which is VERY relevant in the case of someone accused of pedophilia.
Said Judge Brooks today:
“The Court finds, based on the Government’s proffer of evidence at the hearing, that the prior acts of child molestation allegedly committed by Defendant in 2002 and 2003 against four child victims are clear and compelling.
“The child pornography victims, in this case, are approximately the same ages as the victims of Defendant’s hands-on child-molestation offenses.
“Accordingly, the prior act evidence is probative of Defendant’s sexual interest in underage children and his propensity for exploiting young girls.
Also on Monday, Jim Bob Duggar was called on to testify.
He was grilled over and over about about his son’s history of inappropriate touching, mostly playing dumb on the subject and even challenging the judge at certain points for daring to bring the topic up in court.
The father of 19 said he couldn’t remember the details of Duggar’s admissions that he had touched the victims, identified during the proceeding as Jane Does 1 through 4
This morning, Brooks put Jim Bob in his place.
“The Court found Mr. Duggar’s selective lapse in memory to be not credible; he was obviously reluctant to testify against his son,” Brooks wrote in his ruling on whether to allow the molestation scandal in the trial.
Holt, however, delivered the most powerful and damning testimony.
Josh’s lawyers tried to argue that it should be removed on the basis of clergy privilege — because she’s married to an elder at the Duggars’ church.
But Brooks denied such a motion on Wednesday.
“It is clear from her testimony — which the Court found very credible — that she was not a clergyperson at the time [Duggar] made certain disclosures to her about molesting children,” the judge wrote.
Josh Duggar has been accused of downloading files depicting child sex abuse on May 14, 15 and 16 of 2019 on the computer at his then-workplace, a used car lot in Arkansas.
On Wednesday, a detective took to the stand and explained how her software detected downloaded files of this nature from an IP address that matched Duggar’s computer.
While this witness discussed the case against Josh, one of these vide files was shown on a screen in court.
The footage showed abuse of two young and naked females… being penetrated by an adult male.
There were also 65 still images of a 7 to 8-year-old girl posing nude presented to the jury.
If convicted of the charges against him, Duggar faces up to 20 years of imprisonment and up to $250,000 in fines on each of the two counts.
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