Josh Duggar.Photo: Kris Connor/Getty
In motions filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas on Friday, Duggar’s attorneys argue that his case should be dismissed because of technicalities over who was running the Department of Homeland Security at the time of their investigation. They also say investigators failed to “preserve potentially exculpatory evidence.”
A virtual hearing was held in May, where agent Gerald Faulkner provided a summary of DHS' forensic analysis of Duggar’s devices, including an HP computer and a Macbook that included a backup of an iPhone.
Faulkner said multiple torrent files had been downloaded from a child abuse series he described as within the “top five of the worst of the worst” that he has ever examined.
Agents conducted a search of Duggar’s Springdale, Arkansas, car dealership in November 2019, including his electronic devices. Agents also conducted interviews of people who had access to those devices, and did not find child pornography on any of their devices.
In one of the motions filed Friday, Duggar’s lawyers suggest that child pornography could have been transferred from one of those devices onto Duggar’s, but claim investigators “preserved no evidence whatsoever” from the witnesses' devices.
Duggar’s lawyers argue that that evidence could have been “exculpatory.”
“The problem is that [DHS' Homeland Security Investigations division] may have not identified evidence of child pornography during the field examination of these devices — but failed to preserve other potentially exculpatory evidence,” the motion says.
“For example, the devices may have contained content as to whether these devices had any relevant internet search history, any evidence associated with the so-called ‘dark web’ and/or the Bit Torrent network, any metadata that might pinpoint the whereabouts of the devices at various dates and times, and the list goes on,” the motion says.
While Duggar’s criminal trial was initially set to begin in early July, it wasdelayedin June to November 30 after the defense said it needed more time to forensically analyze all of the electronic devices involved in the investigation.
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Duggar wasreleased from jailone week after his arrest, and despite the nature of his charges, has been granted"unlimited contact"with his children — Mackynzie Renée, 11, Michael James, 10, Marcus Anthony, 8, Meredith Grace, 6, Mason Garrett, 3, and Maryella Hope, who will turn 2 in November — provided that his wifeAnnais present. He is not allowed to see any other minor children, including his many nieces and nephews.
If convicted, he faces up to 20 years of imprisonment and up to $250,000 in fines on each of the two counts fora total possible sentence of 40 years, according to an April press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Arkansas.
The child porn case is far from Duggar’s first brush with the law.
In May 2015, Duggar apologized for “wrongdoing” after a 2006 police report revealed that he had been investigated as a teen for inappropriately touching five underage girls. His sisters Jill, 29, and Jessa, 28, subsequentlystepped forward as two of the victims.
source: people.com
