(NewsInsights.org) – The Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal from a former reality star who is currently serving a 12-year sentence for receiving child pornography. Best known for his role on TLC’s ’19 Kids and Counting,’ Josh Duggar claimed the trial judge wrongly excluded evidence pointing to another perpetrator. On June 24, SCOTUS rejected that petition.
The reality TV star was originally charged in 2021, two years after local authorities received a tip about someone in Springdale, Arkansas, downloading child sexual abuse images. They were able to trace the connection back to a computer at a used car lot called “Wholesale Motorcars,” which Josh Duggar owned at the time.
An FBI raid on the same location in 2019 turned up hundreds of illicit images, according to court documents. Many of the photos depicted children under the age of 12.
Duggar was arrested and charged with possession of child sexual abuse materials in April of 2021. However, the courts agreed to release him on bail as long as he agreed to reside with a specific family friend. He was also prohibited from having any unsupervised contact with minors, including his own siblings.
In July of the same year, Duggar’s legal team moved to dismiss the charges. Their arguments included a challenge to the constitutionality of the search warrant and the FBI’s handling of the evidence associated with the case. A judge ultimately rejected the motion, and the case went to trial in December.
Duggar was convicted of possessing and receiving child sexual abuse materials and sentenced to serve 151 months in federal prison in May of 2022. However, he and his legal team immediately appealed the conviction to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in Arkansas.
In his initial petition, Duggar argued that the trial judge erred by refusing to allow a former employee — who worked at his car lot and was also a convicted sex offender — to testify. The 8th Circuit Court rejected these arguments and reaffirmed the original decision.
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