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Former reality television star’s child porn trial begins

Josh Duggar of "19 Kids and Counting" fame faces up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 if convicted on each count.

(CN) — Jury selection began Tuesday in the child pornography trial of former reality TV star Josh Duggar, who federal prosecutors say downloaded images depicting the sexual abuse of children ranging in age from 12 years old to a toddler.

Duggar, the eldest of the 19 children on the canceled TLC reality show “19 Kids and Counting,” was arrested and charged in April with two counts of receiving and possessing child pornography. He pleaded not guilty and has been under home confinement with restrictions, including GPS monitoring, while awaiting trial.

Duggar, 33, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, appeared in court as jury selection opened Tuesday alongside his wife, Anna Duggar. He faces up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 if convicted on each count.

Judge Timothy L. Brooks is expected to rule prior to the start of trial on a flurry of last-minutes motions, including on whether to allow prosecutors to use previous child molestation allegations against Duggar at trial, and whether the clergy-penitent privilege shields the testimony of witness Bobye Holt.

Holt testified at an evidentiary hearing on Monday that Duggar admitted in 2003 to sexually molesting four minor females, later revealed to be his sisters, while he himself was underage.

Duggar’s attorneys argued that any statements Duggar made to Holt or her husband, Jim Holt, were made in their capacities as spiritual advisors “with the expectation that the communications would be kept confidential,” according to court documents.

Prosecutors say that Bobye Holt “is not clergy or a church leader … she is simply a long-time family friend of the defendant and the mother of the girl he was dating when he molested Jane Does 1 through 4.”

Along with his Baptist parents and 18 siblings whose names all begin with the letter J, Duggar rode the success of the TLC show documenting their lives for seven years until the network canceled it in July 2015. The cancellation came two months after In Touch Weekly began publishing investigative reports from 2006 detailing claims that Duggar sexually abused four of his sisters years earlier.

Duggar and his four sisters filed separate lawsuits against the magazine and officials in Washington County and the city of Springdale for invasion of privacy in 2017. While Duggar’s lawsuit was dismissed, his sisters’ claims against city and county officials will proceed to trial.

Days after the show’s cancellation, a hack of the cheating website Ashley Madison revealed that Duggar had been maintaining a membership since 2013. He later admitted to being addicted to porn and cheating on his wife.

But jurors will not hear evidence of Duggar’s 2015 admission to being addicted to adult pornography after the judge ruled that the public statement “is irrelevant to this case.”

“The court rejects the notion that an addiction to adult pornography could tend to show defendant’s motive, intent, or knowledge to commit the crimes he has been charged with,” Brooks wrote in the Nov. 17 ruling.

Brooks noted however that if Duggar were to take the stand and offer testimony that he did not view adult pornography, or was not addicted to pornography, then prosecutors could seek to introduce the 2015 admission to impeach his credibility.

Duggar’s bond hearing in May revealed more of the government’s evidence against the fallen reality TV star, whose legal dramas in recent years have overshadowed his once-celebrated role.

Homeland Security Investigations agent Gerald Faulkner, who assisted in the investigation, testified that the father of six downloaded and viewed images and videos of child pornography at the used car lot where he worked as a manager, and that his desktop computer contained an internet accountability program called Covenant Eyes that helps users monitor internet usage to help online porn addictions.

Faulkner went on to say that in his 11 years investigating child exploitation cases, the review of images from Duggar’s case was one of “the top five of the worst I’ve ever had to examine.”

“What is this about — has somebody been downloading child pornography?” Faulkner testified that Duggar abruptly asked during the raid, despite not being informed by agents why the search was being conducted.

Defense attorneys Justin Gelfand and Travis Story are expected to introduce evidence at trial suggesting that at least three other individuals had access to Duggar’s work computer at Wholesale Motorcars, where the images and videos of child pornography were found.

Opening arguments are set to begin immediately after the jury pool is whittled down to 12 jurors and a set of alternates. Judge Brooks prohibited electronic devices, including cell phones, recorders and laptops from the John Paul Hammerschmidt Federal Building in the Western District of Arkansas.

The trial is expected to last five to six days.

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Categories / Criminal, Entertainment, Media, Trials

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