(CN) — Former reality TV star and conservative family activist Josh Duggar will not get a new trial on possession of child pornography charges, an Eighth Circuit panel ruled Monday.
Duggar, the oldest of the 19 kids on the TLC documentary program “19 Kids and Counting,” was convicted on two counts of possession of child pornography in late 2021 and sentenced to 151 months in prison in 2022.
Federal prosecutors charged Duggar after tracking downloads of hundreds of images of child pornography to a desktop computer in his used car dealership in Fayetteville, Arkansas. During his trial, Duggar attempted to place the blame on a former employee who was also a convicted sex offender. But the former employee was not called to the stand, as U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks barred jurors from hearing about his previous conviction.
On appeal, Duggar argued Brooks’ decision deprived him of his right to present a complete defense.
After a de novo review of the case, U.S. Circuit Judge David Stras, a Donald Trump appointee, cited Federal Rule of Evidence 403 to find Judge Brooks had “unquestionable constitutional discretion to exclude” the former employee’s conviction from the record, adding “the right to present a complete defense does not trump a district court’s discretion to keep out confusing or misleading evidence, even if it would be helpful to the defense.”
Chief U.S. Circuit Judge Lavenski R. Smith, a George W. Bush appointee, and U.S. Circuit Judge Jonathan A. Kobes, a Trump appointee, joined in the opinion.
In a second argument, Duggar insisted the court should have excluded statements he made to investigators outside the presence of a defense attorney.
When initially approached by investigators serving a search warrant, Duggar specifically asked if it was about “someone downloading child pornography,” before being informed it actually was. He also admitted downloading an encrypted file-sharing program on all his electronic devices.
The panel found Duggar voluntarily made the statements while he was not under arrest or interrogation.
“We conclude that a reasonable person in Duggar’s position would not have thought ‘his freedom of movement’ was ‘restricted,’” Stras wrote, adding the admission of his statements did not violate his Miranda rights.
Finally, Duggar also sought to attack the credibility of a government witness who examined his cellphone and determined it was on the used car lot at the same time and dates the illicit images were downloaded. Meanwhile, Duggar had also claimed pertinent statements by his own expert forensic analyst were unjustly suppressed. The panel reviewed the claims for an abuse of discretion but found none.
Although the government’s analyst did possess “specialized knowledge,” it was not required for each and every element of his investigation, as long as his knowledge was “reasonably applied” where it mattered, Stras wrote. The exclusion of certain testimony from Duggar’s expert was justified because she failed to examine the data herself. Rather, she depended on the government’s conclusion.
“19 Kids and Counting” was wildly popular and aired for seven years until allegations emerged that Joshua Duggar had sexually abused several of his young female siblings both before and during the show’s run. Afterward, when Duggar’s membership on the hook-up website Ashley Madison was leaked, he said he was “addicted to porn” and cheating on his wife, with whom he shares one daughter born in 2021.
Duggar, 35, is currently incarcerated at FCI Seagoville, a low-security facility in Texas. His scheduled release date is Oct. 2, 2032, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
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