The Supreme Court on Monday declined disgraced reality TV star Josh Duggar’s request to consider whether his conviction for downloading images of child sexual abuse should be tossed out.
BRIEFINGS
Duggar, who rose to fame alongside his sizeable family on TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting, was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison after a federal jury in Arkansas found him guilty on one count of receiving child pornography in 2021.
He downloaded the images onto a computer at a car dealership he owned.
COURT HEARD
In his petition to the high court, Duggar attorney Justin Gelfand suggested that the trial judge excluded ‘relevant evidence of an alternative perpetrator’ after barring the defense from telling jurors about a prior s-x offense of a former employee of Duggar’s dealership.
Because of the ruling, Duggar’s attorneys did not call the former employee to testify.
WHY THE SHOW WAS CANCELLED?
The TLC show 19 Kids and Counting was canceled in 2015 after revelations that Duggar, as a teen, had molested four of his sisters and another girl.
In statements at the time, parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar said their son had made ‘very bad mistakes,’ while Duggar said he ‘acted inexcusably’ and ‘sought forgiveness.’
Authorities investigated the abuse but determined the statute of limitations on any possible charges had expired.
