Flurry of filings ahead of Duggar hearing, child porn trial

FAYETTEVILLE — Both sides in the Josh Duggar child porn trial have been busy filing motions and responses this week in advance of a pretrial hearing next week and the scheduled trial at the end of the month.

Duggar, 33, of Springdale, is charged in federal court with two counts involving receiving and possessing child pornography.

One issue includes whether the government can use evidence of Duggar molesting his sisters and another girl when he was a minor. Duggar was never charged in connection with those allegations, but the government contends they are relevant to the current case.

Another issue is whether the prosecution can use Duggar’s prior statements about having an addiction to adult pornography, being unfaithful to his wife or his participation on a dating website.

The defense contends the uncharged allegations happened too long ago to be relevant to the current charges and are not supported by sufficient evidence to be admissible, amounting to nothing more than an attack on Duggar’s character.

The defense also argues the allegations stem from a heavily redacted police report, dated Dec. 7, 2006, that was unlawfully obtained by an entertainment tabloid publication.

“The problem with the government’s position, however, is that it is far from clear that the uncharged allegations actually constitute a crime under Arkansas state law,” according to the defense. “Here, the allegations against Duggar were never charged, allegedly occurred nearly 20 years ago, and occurred at a time when Duggar was a child.”

The government contends the allegations are admissible because Duggar is charged with a child molestation crime and that makes evidence of his prior child molestation conduct admissible. Prosecutors argue they show Duggar’s propensity to commit such crimes and his motive and intent to commit the crimes to which he has been charged.

The government argues evidence Duggar molested minor girls, in the approximate age range of the victims depicted in material he is charged with downloading from the internet, is relevant and highly predictive that he might later knowingly receive and possess child pornography.

The defense maintains Duggar’s pornography statement, posted on the Duggar Family Facebook Page, is irrelevant to whether Duggar downloaded child pornography.

“The statement does not reflect ‘ wrongful’ conduct and is not admissible as a ‘prior bad act’ in the United States where viewing adult pornography is generally constitutionally protected,” according to a response.

The prosecution is wrong to suggest that viewing adult pornography is somehow related to viewing child pornography, according to the defense.

The statement read: “While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the internet and this became a secret addiction, and I became unfaithful to my wife.”

There’s also a motion to exclude opinion testimony characterizing child pornography. The defendant’s motion focuses on a statement made during Duggar’s detention hearing in which an investigator described child sexual abuse material that Duggar is accused of downloading as among the worst he has ever seen.

The defense also wants to exclude statements Duggar made to investigators during an interview months before he was arrested. That interview was done at Duggar’s used car lot while a search warrant was being served. The government contends Duggar wasn’t in custody and made statements voluntarily. The defense maintains Duggar asked for a lawyer. The judge ruled earlier Duggar wasn’t in custody at the time and Miranda protections didn’t apply.

There’s also a motion from the government to prohibit the defense from trying to blame third parties for downloading child porn at Duggar’s car lot.

Another issue is whether prosecution witnesses should be sequestered to prevent them talking with the government’s lawyers during the trial.

A pretrial hearing is set for Thursday. Duggar’s trial is set to begin Nov. 30.

Duggar, best known for being part of his family’s cable television reality show, is accused of using the internet in May 2019 to download and possess the material, some of which depicts the sexual abuse of children younger than 12, according to court documents. Duggar was indicted in April 2021.

He faces up to 20 years of imprisonment and fines up to $250,000 on each count if convicted.