[ad_1]
Give Josh Duggar an A for effort, we guess.
But then an F for everything else he’s done in his life.
On Monday afternoon, the prosecution called its final witness in its child pornography possession case against the former reality star, turning control of the proceedings over to Duggar’s defense team.
And the first thing they did with this control?
Attempt to end the trial early.
At one crucial point yesterday, Josh’s lawyer, Justin Gelfand, filed a motion for acquittal on both charges of receipt and possession.
The attorney formally stated there was “insufficient evidence of known possession” and “insufficient evidence of actually knowing receipt by Mr. Duggar of child pornography.”
Gelfand mainly focused this argument on the testimony of James Fottrell.
A computer forensic analyst at the Department of Justice, Fottrell examined the devices Duggar kept at his place of work in early 2019 and was called to the stand on Friday.
According to Josh’s attorney, this expert was unable to establish that Duggar actually downloaded any of the sexually graphic material he’s been accused of downloading.
Such as at least one horrifying video of a baby getting tortured.
Fottrell made his case for the prosecution, outlining extensive time-and-place links between Duggar and the downloading/viewing of child pornography in his used car dealership office about two and a half years ago.
“I believe that evidence sufficient to go to the jury has been heard,” Assistant United States Attorney Carly Marshall said in response to Gelfand’s claim.
Inside of the courtroom, this prosecutor proceeded to run through Fottrell’s forensic proof.
After hearing both sides, Judge Timothy L. Brooks sided with the prosecution.
He said he found there was “well more than sufficient evidence” for the trial to go on as planned.
The judge also said the evidence presented by the prosecution satisfied the conditions to move forward and stated that there was “a plethora of evidence here to suggest a reasonable jury from which they could find there was possession.”
The defense’s motion to acquit was therefore denied.
During a four-hour cross-examination late last week Fottrell explained what he found on Duggar’s work computer.
He pointed to cached data and thumbnails auto-created when files are downloaded and accessed that proved illegal photos and videos had once existed on this device.
It was “forensically challenging” to do so, he admitted under oath.
But not impossible.
“Some offenders understand it’s dangerous to possess the material of this nature so they download it, view it and then delete it,” versus amassing a library, Fottrell said.
He addded that he had found full-sized originals of one lewd collection of photographs in a part of the hard drive that retains deleted files.
While Fottrell was called to testify to technical details that allegedly proved Josh’s guilt, the prosecution wrapped up its case by calling upon Bobye Holt.
A former very close family friend of the Duggars, Holt said she was present in March 2003 when Josh confessed to the molestation of a five-year old.
Just like she did at a pre-trial heating, Holt swore that Duggar said back then that he groped this child under her shirt and under her pants while she sat on his lap, reading the bible.
“You don’t forget something like that. It completely impacted our families,” said Holt, adding that her daughter was dating Josh at the time of this incident.
In April, Josh was arrested on one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.
The 19 Kids and Counting alum pleaded not guilty the following day in court and was later released from jail to his designated third-party custodians, family friends Lacount and Maria Reber.
He faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted on both these charges.
The trial is expected to conclude in a couple days.
[ad_2]
Source link
