Child-porn charges for Josh Duggar
Former reality-TV star Josh Duggar faces charges of downloading and possessing child pornography under a federal indictment unsealed Friday.
Federal prosecutors announced the indictment a day after Duggar was arrested by U.S. Marshals in Fayetteville, Ark. Prosecutors said Duggar possessed the material, some of which depicts the sexual abuse of children under the age of 12, in May 2019.
Duggar, 33, pleaded not guilty at a hearing Friday. His attorneys said they planned to defend his case “aggressively and thoroughly.”
“In this country, no one can stop prosecutors from charging a crime,” the attorneys said in a statement. “But when you’re accused, you can fight back in the courtroom — and that is exactly what Josh intends to do.”
A federal judge set a May 5 detention hearing and a July 6 trial date.
Duggar starred on TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting” until it was pulled from the network in 2015 over revelations Duggar had molested four of his sisters and a babysitter. Duggar’s parents said he had confessed to the fondling and apologized.
Duggar previously apologized for a pornography addiction and cheating on his wife. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years of imprisonment and fines up to $250,000 on each count.
‘Thrones’ actress accuses Manson of assault
Esmé Bianco, an actress known for her work on “Game of Thrones,” on Friday filed a lawsuit in which she accused singer Marilyn Manson of sexual assault and sexual battery and described a series of violent incidents when they lived together in 2011.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California, said Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, had used “fraudulent offers of movie and music video roles to convince Ms. Bianco to travel to Los Angeles, whereupon Mr. Warner then made threats of force and performed violent sexual acts on Ms. Bianco to which she did not consent.”
The suit also named Manson’s longtime manager, Tony Ciulla, and his management company, accusing Manson and Ciulla of violating trafficking laws.
Bianco flew to Los Angeles in 2009 for a video shoot that, the lawsuit said, turned into a multiday assault during which she was whipped and suffered electric shocks. The footage was never released, the suit said. She and Manson later began a consensual relationship, it said, and in 2011 he persuaded Bianco, who is British, to live with him in Los Angeles “while he helped her secure a visa and launch her career in the United States.” During that time, the lawsuit said, she endured “constant abuse” at his hands, and he raped her
Howard King, a lawyer for Manson, called the claims against him “provably false” and said they were “based on conduct that simply never occurred.”
In a statement, he accused Bianco and her lawyer of a shakedown attempt. “We will vigorously contest these allegations in court and are confident that we will prevail,” he said in the statement.
The lawsuit comes almost three months after Manson was accused by another ex, actress Evan Rachel Wood, of domestic abuse, rape and assault.