Trigger warning.
Remember how Josh Duggar’s car dealership was raided by Homeland Security in 2019? I kept thinking about that last week when we learned that Duggar has been arrested on possession of images of child sex abuse. As it turns out, Homeland Security *did* find the disgusting images on Duggar’s work computer in 2019. Which… I have to ask, why the nearly two-year lag in between the discovery of Duggar’s crimes and his arrest for those crimes? Why was Josh Duggar allowed to roam free and have access to children (his own and other kids) in those two years? And why in God’s name is the judge in his case allowing him out on bail??? Yesterday was Duggar’s bail hearing, and the arresting officer testified about why Duggar should not be released on bail. His testimony is just as disturbing as we dreaded. I’m not going to excerpt that, but you can go to People’s site to read it. Trigger warning on that.
The People article states that, although Duggar had no idea what the raid was about, he said “What is this about? Has someone been downloading child pornography?” Plus his wife had software on his computer, called “Covenant Eyes,” meant to show if someone was looking at questionable material online. The details in the People article are absolutely awful and involve very young children. The officer called it ” the worst of the worst that I’ve ever had to examine.” And after all that, the judge still granted him bail:
Josh Duggar will be released from jail as he faces charges for receiving and possessing child pornography. During a virtual detention hearing on Wednesday at the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, Judge Christy Comstock ruled that the former 19 Kids and Counting star will be allowed to leave the detention center where he has been held since his arrest last week. Duggar will be released Thursday to designated third party custodians, Lacount and Maria Reber, described in court as “close friends” of the Duggar family. He will be confined to their home and monitored with GPS tracking.
The judge noted that she “cannot in good conscience” release Duggar to his pregnant wife Anna and their six children — Maryella Hope, 17 months, Mason Garrett, 3½, Meredith Grace, 5½, Marcus Anthony, 7½, Michael James, 9½, and Mackynzie Renée, 11. However, he has been granted “unlimited contact” with his children, so long as Anna is present. Duggar may not see any other minor child, including his nieces and nephews.
“Don’t make me regret this decision,” the judge advised Duggar, 33, before adjourning.
This is reprehensible from the judge. I’m disgusted that she would allow a child-abusing pervert out on bail and allow him unlimited contact with his own children, not to mention any children who might visit the Reber family. We simply don’t know how this man has terrorized and abused his wife and children because there’s been no examination or investigation of it. Why are people like “sure, he had all of this profoundly disturbing and criminal material on his computer, I’m sure it ends there”?
Photos courtesy of social media, Backgrid.
I was really surprised that he was allowed to have unlimited contact w/ their kids, as long as SHE is supervising? Gross. Gross, gross, gross.
Yes, let’s have the brainwashed to accept whatever her husband says/wants who is “trained” to look the other way and not ask questions be the one to supervise his visits. Their children’s safety and well-being is being failed at every level.
And if his wife that is trained to give him a blind eye decides to think for herself she would be ostracized from the family and demonized in her children’s minds by all the other adults.
He needs to be locked away.
That is so wrong! How can that be considered safe at all! How is there not automatic supervision by CFS in these cases. The family cannot be trusted.
I’m horrified and really worried about the safety of these children!
A German Professor, Jörg M. Fegert, has written extensively about the complicity of mothers in child abuse cases. This is not a good development.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350835994_Mothers_as_Perpetrators_and_Bystanders_of_Child_Sexual_Abuse
How can a judge not understand this about abusive families, that wives are often complicit? Get an expert to advise you!
So the wife has this software that shows her what he looks at online… but either is ok with it or doesn’t look at the software?
I hope SO MUCH that his children have not been abused. But unfortunately I doubt it based on his behavior with his sisters and obviously his online habits.
At the hearing they said he essentially split the hard drive into halves and installed dark net browser on one, covenant eyes on the other. So it never had access to the bad stuff to begin with.
He bought some kind of software for the computer that blocked the Covenant Eyes from seeing what he was doing and sending notification messages to Anna.
I’m assuming that this judge is somehow part of the cult also.
@ olliesmom, Exactly what I was thinking. This judge must buy into the Duggar cult clan.
That was my thought, too.
The Duggars are friends with the Huckabees, right? It’s a good bet the latter’s influence is what kept Josh protected before–and is helping him now.
I’m guessing they win also have him under surveillance and the minute he violates any term of probation, he’s back in jail until his trial.
‘Don’t make me regret it’
The judge is an idiot. They’re playing with the potential for him to abuse someone and the judge says ‘don’t make me regret it.’
The disregard for the safety of his children is chilling.
Right!!!??? Does she realize that, if she does, in fact, “regret it”, that means that another child has been violated and abused?
If she does “regret it”, I hope she also gets charged with child endangerment!
Right!! So his rights and privileges are more important than those of his children. They have the right to be protected!
I expected better from a female judge. People cease to leave me shocked and disheartened.
That statement from the judge shows she KNOWS there’s a significant risk that he’ll abuse a child while out. Sickening.
I would say “welcome to family court” but this is criminal so I’m a bit surprised but not that surprised. Judges play fast and loose with children’s welfare in the care of their abusive parents. A parent’s right to their kids overshadows a child’s right to safety too often
As horrible as it may seem, the judge cannot leap to the conclusion that possessing child porn means he is abusing his children. There is no evidence (thus far) that he has abused his children or that he has shared these images and videos with his wife and children (which would be a VERY different situation altogether). He is innocent until proven guilty. If the judge had imposed harsher restrictions or said anything which suggested that she had already prejudged him, that could easily upend the entire case. She was walking a tightrope here, and she did the best she could. Now it is up to Arkansas DCFS to step in and use the civil child protection system to ensure he does not abuse his kids or anyone else’s while he is out on bail.
The chasm between the law and what psychologists know about sexual predators and abusers is a tragedy.
The problem with that is that the judge keeps drug dealers in jail until trial. He has a history of molesting children and possession of child porn is not a victimless crime. They haven’t interviewed or assessed his children or his other younger siblings he’s had access to. This is a gross mistake.
The Duggars’ TV show was canceled after it was revealed that Josh sexually assaulted children (including several of his sisters) when he was a teen. He has a history of child sex abuse.
Thank you for explaining this bit to us. I really appreciate it BearcatLawyer! As a mental health clinician it can be infuriating to think about how these decisions are reached. As we know pedophiles have a high rate of recidivism.
@Bearcatlawyer
IDK if you know the answer to this, but would any of his victims have a potential civil case against TLC? I know the new show hasn’t directly featured Josh, but it shows his wife and children and Josh obviously continues to receive money from the network because of it.
I don’t think it’s out of line to say that TLC continuing to pay the Duggars and promote their cult has resulted in continued child abuse
Yeah. YouTube Lawyer (as in a lawyer with a YouTube channel, not a lawyer for the tube) Emily D Baker had a great case breakdown stream last night about this ruling. She pointed out that justice *has to be* blind, and that it’s a requirement of the court to apply laws fairly and uniformly, even when we all loathe the defendant.
The fact that so many aren’t afforded the same quality of justice is infuriating, as is the fact that the law allows him the privilege of “unlimited” access to his freedom as he’s pending trial, but has kept people in jail *on suspicion* of having committed a true non-violent crime because they can’t afford bond. I’m enraged by this case, but not because the judge did her job.
Thanks to Bearcat and Osito for that analysis of the situation. One thing that occured to me is that this may actually be one of the the most dangerous times for his children, because he will be highly stressed and know that he might be losing his contact with them forever. He is perhaps more likely to offend against them in these circumstances, even if he hasn’t done it before.
I think we saw that in Woody Allen’s case – he physically abused Dylan when he was about to lose her and when the stressors in his life went up (because of his affair with Soon-Yi).
It’s the children who will regret it, not the judge. It’s documented he has abused family members so why would he stop now? Bad decision.
If I remember correctly that judge was just assigned to his bond hearing and it’s someone else over his case, but I’m not sure he’ll be any better than this idiot who just let him out.
The children in the images he downloaded were 18 months to 12 years old, the same age range as his kids. WTF is this judge thinking? Will nobody act to protect those kids.
That was my first thought too! Exact age range as his own children. Sicko!
THIS! You can’t tell me that if he hasn’t touched them already he’s seriously making plans.
I read a *very* brief summary of what Josh downloaded, no explicit details included. Just that one sentence f*cked me up royally last night. Sobbing, not a single moment of sleep. Josh downloaded and deleted that abomination THREE TIMES. He kept going back to it. I don’t have the vocabulary to describe the type of evil he is. I know the judge has to work within the law, but letting him out with only his submissive wife for chaperone isn’t going to end well for those kids.
I read a break down from someone who was able to zoom into the hearing yesterday and it’s the worst of the worst of the worst. I was trying to talk to my husband about it and almost started crying and had to stop.
The people that he is being released too are in the same cult and the women mean nothing to them. The wife is doing this because her husband said so even though she expressed concern about being alone with him in her home because her husband works outside of the home all day long! They are rearranging their entire life to let him stay there because they want to help and “minister” to them. The daughter is older, not a minor but still a woman in the cult. If you read the judge’s thoughts there are so many awful things and she said they all concern the court but she still lets him go. She also seems to have some knowledge about this cult because she point blank tells the wife that if Josh violates his probation that she needs to call the officer and not her husband, Jim Bob, or church elders, she says the same thing to the husband about calling the officer first. She also said that the acts he committed on the five girls when he was 14 were such a long time ago that it is in his favor since he hasn’t been convicted of anything like that since. How you can say that knowing that he was never held accountable for those acts and with everything found of his computer and the lengths he went to hide it is appalling to me. I could go on and on because there is a lot that happened and was revealed but I was up half the night thinking about this so I’m exhausted.
Yesterday I learned that seasoned p*dophiles won’t view or share that video because it is so extreme in its cruelty, and Josh watched it over and over. I’m sincerely not trying to make another person’s trauma about me, but I don’t feel like I will ever be the same knowing this. An eternity of unrelenting hellfire would be too lenient for him.
Re: the custodians. My jaw dropped yesterday when I read the Mrs. is afraid of Josh but had to submit to her husband’s wishes on the matter. And the judge basically said SURE THING, OFF YOU GO! Imagine inviting this scum into your home without considering the feelings of your partner or daughter (she’s 20, so not a minor but her feelings are valid regardless). That man literally placed pleasing Jim Bob and “ministering” to Josh above his own family.
I’m going to step back from Duggar coverage for my mental health. Please take care of yourself.
Ronin, It’s just unacceptable in every way possible. I read the other comments so I do understand that the judge has to apply the actual law, and I don’t think his history counts as I don’t believe he was ever tried/convicted for abusing his siblings. (I bellieve them 100000%, but just saying, if it isn’t legally on record, the judge can’t consider it) BUT I would think that they could have appoited someone OTHER than the wife as a chaperone for the visits. Right? That would have been a good start.
@ronin, Yes you too. The things I learned yesterday are things you can’t unlearn and should make a normal human repulsed. I had a physical reaction and a deep deep sorrow in my heart that this happens and these poor children live these lives. It’s absolutely crushing and depressing. All the while these people were hashtag save our children last summer and now they are supporting this monster! I have kids around these ages and I look at them and just, I can’t.
I have a 4 year old and a 20 month old. I just keep looking at them and wondering how anyone could see them as sexual. They’re just so innocent.
Those poor kids have no protection, just like their aunts.
I went on the Duggar subreddit and read q&as with people who knows them and the way Jim Bob is defending this man…the apple don’t fall far
Any cult that starts with ‘men get to do what they want no questions asked’ is going to have all kinds of horrors within it.
@sarahcs Ding! Ding! Ding! Succinctly put!
Exactly. Anna has probably been made to feel like this is her fault since they preach that you need to be available and attractive to your husband a ALL times no matter what or else he will stray. They don’t believe in marital rape. They believe all p@$n is wrong and essentially the same. They believe that a sin is a sin so someone stealing a book is just as bad as what Josh had done. They believe in God’s law (however they interpret it) over man’s law. So I have no faith that this third party will actually alert the probation officer if he violates. Do you actually think he’s going to stay away from any kind of technology until July? Also he gets to go to church. Are there no children at this church? I highly doubt it.
Women in the quiverfull cult have essentially been trained to be ‘perfect’ victims from birth. It’s really awful.
said it before, I’ll say it again.
I fully believe that Jim Bob is an abuser too, in the same vein as his son. he sexualized little girls wearing tights and dresses. the dude is just as gross as Josh.
Sadly, the women who grow up on these cults are all usually sexually exploited as children, teenagers, and then as adults.
These women married to these men need expert psychological sexual childhood and complex trauma intervention from well trained licensed professionals.
Lots of times, the abusers and their families deliberately live in communities where everyone grew up together and oftentimes even attended the same churches. And while the judge may not have grown up in a community where many in the community are supportive of the religious cults, chances are that they too, are somehow involved in supporting religious members of these communities as employees, coworkers, relatives, friends, teachers to their children, etc.
These abuses are tolerated legally to the point where Josh is allowed to be a known consumer of CP, and yet is allowed to not only be around his small children, but is allowed to be in contact with others who may be contact with him as well as their own small children, too.
That’s not a mistake. That’s a community of people who stick together no matter what and keep families together in hopes of rehabilitation via a transformational miracle offered by their God, instead of correctly assessing this man to be a great risk to his community and removing him from his home in order to protect the physical well being of the small children who have no advocate but a mother who is required to submit to her husband, who also happens to be a child sexual predator.
A normal society would not allow that and a judge who lived in a society that placed secular law of the land over the laws of a religious cult, would have had better and appropriate options to protect Josh’s family and community from him and his criminally disposed proclivities which are al about sex crimes practiced against children.
Josh is as sick as the society that shelters and protects him. His wife in children are in a five alarm fire situation and are in dire need of emergency help, yet no one is defining that or even aiding her in receiving aid, and she is even made ward of a full on, grade A dangerous criminal.
Something is really wrong here snd it doesn’t only begin and/or end with Josh.
Horrible situation. Unbelievable.
ANT and whatWHAT, I agree with everything you say here. This is not a question of one predatory abuser, it is an entire system of abuse against women and children that is designed to relieve adult male predators — of various kinds — of earthly accountability.
I was reading some of the threads there this morning. The people he is being released to are friends of the family and have a daughter! I don’t know how old the daughter is, but can you imagine your father letting this horrible person live in your house and putting you in danger.
I don’t remember if it was covered on Celebitchy, but a few years back (2015) a woman, Danica Dillon, accused Josh of brutally raping her. She ended up dropping her lawsuit.
I really worry about the people in his orbit!
IIRC she is 22 she is definitely not under age
Lisa – I was pretty sure that she wasn’t underage, but I worry for her safety considering the past rape allegation.
The daughter of the couple he is being release to is 22 yo but she teaches piano to children out of the home. It’s so messed up. There is absolutely no protection for children or women in this cult.
@keroppi im old enough to be his mother and I would worry for my own safety
Ah rich white male privilege. Wonder what the judge got in return for this deal. Already trying to rehab his image I see.
That was my comment/question. I don’t follow these people, know nothing of them, but the fact they’re on the news tells me they’re reality celebrities. And rich. And obviously white. i can’t with this.
I deeply regret reading the details of his hearing. He should never be allowed around children again. A sicko.
These cases take a long time to build because the cops must examine the digital history of every single image – when it was downloaded, when it was accessed, how it was accessed, etc. and then establish that it was in fact Josh Duggar who was the person doing the downloading and accessing on that computer every time. If he was not the sole perpetrator (more than one person had access to the computer or may have accessed the images), then the cops must break down who did what when. Frankly, less than two years to investigate this – during a pandemic, no less – seems fast to me given the volume of images and video he had in his possession.
As for the judge, he is technically innocent until proven guilty. As terrible as it sounds, without any allegations that he has sexually abused his own kids, it would be difficult to bar him from seeing them. Once he is convicted…well, that is a different story entirely.
According to People, it appears that Josh stored his child porn in a separate, password-protected area of his computer that the monitoring program could not access. So while Anna may have thought this program was keeping him honest, Josh apparently figured out how to beat it.
Thanks for explaining how law enforcement must build their case. Although the legal system has to be followed, it’s still unsettling to know such a pervert is roaming free and could still harm innocent children.
This. I was reading about the computer on Reddit. The other apps/stuff he was using to hide it doesn’t show on the Covenant Eyes. He had some kind of thing that basically turned 1 computer into two. The other side was all the dark stuff hidden. That dude is stupid but he’s also really smart after reading all the stuff he did to hide it. It’s pretty high tech.
@Scal it sounds to me like he partitioned his hard drive and made the child porn area password-protected. Covenant Eyes was only installed on one part of his hard drive and would not have been able to alert Anna of any activity on the password-protected portion.
Josh does not strike me as the brightest bulb. He learned how to evade Covenant Eyes somewhere. My guess is that he had befriended other child predators online who helped him hide his porn and his computer activities.
What I want to know is how he got caught. Which one of his porn buddies got busted? The feds almost certainly found Josh’s IP address that way.
Linux partitions aren’t very high tech. Annoying to set up, but not complicated. I’m definitely not a techie and I’ve set them up on my kids’ computers following simple internet instructions. (It’s a lot harder for a kid to get a virus onto a Linux system.)
Why did his wife think she needed to install Covenant Eyes on his computer? I find that in and of itself alarming.
@Mac — That freaked me out too. She knew. If I felt I had to monitor my husband’s computer because there was something bad on it, I’d divorce him and run to the other side of the globe. I can’t even imagine it.
Women in this cult are brought up to believe they’re entirely responsible for their husbands’ sexual behavior. How that goes along with also obeying their husbands in all things, I’ve never understood, but then cult beliefs are always wildly contradictory.
Thank you for the explanation, BeartcatLawyer, this has been helpful to rein my disgust into something a bit more logical.
In a case as vile as this, it’s so difficult to look past your own emotions and horror at what happened and forget the way the justice system is meant to work (even if it doesn’t apply it to all people of colour equally).
I minored in criminal law at uni, so am somewhat aware of the hurdles to overcome beyond reasonable doubt, but a case as disgusting and continuing as this makes my knee jerk reaction just to lock him up and never let him near another child again.
These investigations can move quickly; I’d guess the pandemic and high profile slowed this one down. Years ago a co-worker was about to be arrested for downloading child pornography; he was given 24 hours to get his affairs in order before turning himself in (he committed suicide instead). It was 3 months from the time he was reported to the police to the warrant being executed. The delay was due to the local police and FBI doing additional investigating and determining if charges would be federal or state. He was caught because he brought his phone in for repairs and someone at the store saw the images and reported him.
It’s not a total surprise he received bail; he doesn’t have a record (officially), there are no reports he has abused his children, etc. While I do hope the local dept of children and families gets involved, with the level of influence the Duggar family seems to have in Arkansas do not have high expectations anything would come of it.
In your example you are referencing these images on someone’s phone. You don’t normally share a phone so it would be easy to show that the owner of the phone was the guilty party. The Duggar case was on a work computer that many people had access to and and could possibly muddy the investigation. There was more work for the prosecutor to ensure and establish who was responsible. They don’t want to establish any doubt by the defense.
@Sankay I am going to hazard a guess that very few people actually had access to the work computer. From the pix I’ve seen, the work was his used car lot and the building was basically a tiny shed with windows that I would be surprised if there was more than one person in it at a time. If anyone else was ever in it it was probably other Duggars that were part of the used car business.
@Mac I come from a religious background (nothing like the cult these people are in) and many people feel that looking at p*rnography is a huge sin. My ex husband (after we were married) informed me he had an addiction to p*rn and someone in the church suggested he use the software. I received those emails (not at my request but my husband’s to help keep him “accountable”) and they can range from showing nothing, to showing when I viewed websites while shopping for swim suits, to showing him trying to access adult websites.
I have no knowledge or suspicion of my ex looking at minors (would have been a very different situation if I had even the slightest suspicion of that). From my experience with evangelicals I would assume most people use this software in a way similar to my ex, or to monitor what their teens are looking at online.
Apparently Jim Bob Duggar installed the Covenant app on all his kids’ computers because he’s, you know, Jim Bob the Control Freak. They made it so the app (also?) reported to his wife about Josh’s online activity (web sites visited, downloads). But since he had partitioned his hard drive and passworded the partition without the app on it and used that for the child abuse downloads, they had no way of knowing what he was doing on the unmonitored partition. So they all thought Josh was being a good boy.
The password was his birthday. He also used that password for all of his bank accounts. He’s hella stupid.
Wow. I was wondering how they accessed the data on what was presumably an encrypted partition. Thank goodness for most criminals not being very good at criming, I guess….
The way our justice system will do the very most to protect predators when it comes to sex crimes is truly heinous…
Why is no one protecting the children around this person? I do not know who he is and truthfully never heard of him until I read about him here. Where is child protection?
Because these are federal charges, I think they convene a grand jury to decide whether to indict or not. I wonder how much COVID caused lapses in indictments because they couldn’t convene grand juries in person. Any attorneys in CBLand to weigh in on this? Law is not my subject matter expertise.
Bearcat Lawyer weighed in above with a good overview of how they build these cases.
@Izzy – thanks! She/he and I were posting around the same time so I didn’t see their post when I made mine. I appreciate your pointing it out.
The judge has allowed him access to his own kids after he was arrested for possession of child pornography, after admitting to having molested his sisters, and after finding out that his wife knew what he was doing? This is disturbing on so many levels. This man should not be allowed anywhere near ANY child. Let alone his own.
I went to school with a girl who was molested by her father as a child. He was allowed to live with them after (while she was still a minor) and her mother is still married to him. After her father abused her, one of her older brothers did too. He was not allowed back in the house. I will never understand why you would allow someone who had abused a child to continue to live with that child, but the only restrictions I was told of were that her father wasn’t allowed to be home alone with her or any other minors.
“Don’t make me regret it.”
Come the f–k on! You’re talking to a known pedophile and incestuous abuser, not a teenager who wants an extended curfew on prom night.
My thoughts exactly when I read that lame warning… terrible last words by the judge.
This makes zero sense. What’s to stop Anna from bringing her and the kids and living there with him too? Ridiculous!
Thank you for the trigger warning as this case may indeed be a trigger for many survivor’s of childhood sexual abuse, myself included.
The fact that Anna Duggar knew is the worst part of this for me. SHE KNEW, yet did nothing to protect her children, and other innocent kids exploited and abused in the images he viewed, while supporting her disgusting husband.
That sickens me on a level I still can’t explain, in my 40’s, light years (and many therapy bills) away from my own mother who did nothing to protect me. In fact, she brought the creepy men to our home and left me in their care, only to tell me I was just asking for attention when I told her that I woke up unable to breathe with one of the men on top of me in the middle of the night. She never believed me, or provided any protection, in fact she blamed me for the unwanted attention which is impossible for a 6, and then 8 year old, child to understand. I was forced to end my relationship with her 8 years ago to heal and move away from the toxicity.
Sadly, we all knew about him because of what he did to his poor sisters.
I have no sympathy for pedophiles because of the deep destruction they cause in their selfish and disgusting wakes. I hope he burns, yet sadly once again, it’s the innocent children who pay the price for his sins…
Hey Stef, sending loving support your way. Celebitches unite.
Thanks, I really appreciate that.
💯
Sending you strength, Stef. I relate to your story. I’ve told people many times that my brain can get around my abuser (they exist, they’re sick, etc) but the caretaker who allowed him access to me, told me to acquiesce, hid his crimes, & then attacked me when I had the gall to speak up about the abuse….they still boggle my mind & that level of betrayal will never cease. I now see my caretaker as just as sick as him, maybe even more.
The good news is that I’ve now come to terms with the fact that it wasn’t about me at all, and any vulnerable child was going to victimized. It didn’t have to do with my worth of being loved or lovable, these people are not capable of love or care for another (see narcissistic personality disorder) and it had nothing to do with me. I walk away a whole person who was the victim of crimes because I was at the wrong place, wrong time, and they walk away sick, twisted individuals. I now have wisdom, strength & empathy from that horrid experience that they will never know, and no one can ever take away from me.
I give you all the kudos for creating space from your mother. It’s a no win situation & the best we can do is heal for ourselves & our loved ones, that we are able to love & care for, despite our upbringing. Here’s to big, healed, strong hearts!
Also, medcircle has great videos about narcissism, being raised by them, how to deal with them (if you absolutely have to) & how to cope. It was very helpful for me.
Unlimited contact with his children, as long as the woman who must follow her husband’s every wish is present. What could go wrong?
Yeah, as someone said above, without direct evidence or accusation that he assaulted his own kids they can’t keep him from them (although – can’t they?!), but JFC. Make it so an officer of the court has to be there. Anna is clearly not capable of keeping her children safe.
Anna means nothing. It’s basically like he was allowed to be left alone with his children on an unlimited basis.
Right? As if she could do anything to stop him.
Those poor kids.
My heart breaks for those poor children. This whole story makes me sick to my stomach. This judge is being negligent.
Judge (hopefully) reversing her decision in 3…2…
Disgusting. You know she would allow him to abuse the kids in her presence, she’s a cult member who thinks men are gods and should do as they please.
I’m surprised that the judge also didn’t consider him a flight risk. His family has money, has demonstrated that they will protect him and literally own at least one plane!
Yeah, that makes no sense at all.
I am really hoping the Division of Children and Family Services will have additional stipulations on his contact with his children
last night Emily d baker did a live stream, about the charges and the release and she said legally the release is justified. the details were somehow even worse than I expected. Jill and that aunt they dont speak to were there, was her name Amy? one of the arguments in his favor was that the raid or whatever was in 2019 and nothing new has happened since then
his own kids haven’t been examined
the people he is living with, the wife didnt really seem to want him there
he can go to Walmart etc, it all just seems so unsafe
also would a black man get to turn himself in with this kind of stuff on his computer?
the Linux wall? or whatever hiding his abuse images, literally everything he has has the same password, like his porn and his Facebook and his checking account
at one point they said his brothers could have had the images not him
half that family has a plane, not sure how he is not a flight risk
Yeah Emily D. breaks that legalese down into layman’s language and what I like about that is that she RARELY takes sides (even when that whole KJ stuff was going down and she sent her stans after Emily) she just reads the charges, reads the legal responses and then tells what x y and z are and why…
As long as his wife is present? There is zero way she will protect those kids. It should have been a neutral third party present approved through the court system during divorce or child custody visitation or modifications, where they meet somewhere public at an agreed-upon place and time. We see it all the time in our court system where one spouse might be considered unstable. Yet, this guy with these kind of charges gets to go off and meet up with his wifes and kids unlimited. Wow!
WHERE’S Q???? WE FOUND HIM! WE GOT ONE! WHERE YOU AT? Oh that’s right, you don’t actually care about this shit.
1000000% It’s all deflection.
Sadly, this.
yup, we got one. one that is friendly with Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz, among other GQP-ers.
F*CKING hypocrites.
THIS TOTALLY!!! Distraction, diversion, suppression, and deflection.
I think Q was actually invented at least partially to thwart and sabotage REAL child abuse material investigations. They have all their followers clogging up reporting lines now with delusional insanity. It’s like how Trump primed the country for months before his defeat by repeatedly saying that it would be rigged and stolen, because he knew he would lose and planned to try his best to rig and steal it himself.
It absolutely was invented to sabotage real child abuse investigations.
His parents and (despite her brainwashing) his wife are complicit in what he’s done and the monster he’s become. What he did as a teenager was foul but he wasn’t quite beyond saving yet. Now it’s too late. My heart breaks for his kids, as well as for the sisters he molested all those years ago, I can’t imagine how retraumatizing this must be.
As far as the bail release goes, someone on r/duggarsnark pointed out that Jared Fogle (the subway perv) also got out on bail but in the end they nailed him to the wall and gave him a longer sentence than even the prosecution asked for.
I’m guessing with the last case they wanted to make this one airtight before the arrest-ans then covid just made everything drag out longer.
But ugh-this guy should not be out on bail and around ANY children.
The way anyone who refers to themselves as Christian gets a free pass in this coutry is enough to make me weep. Even non-Christians and/or supposedly impartial, non religious sources will bend over f*cking backwards for anyone who just says the Jesus words, and it’s an underappreciated problem!
You know, I absolutely believe in forgiveness, in the chance for people to repent, regret, improve, try to make up for the wrongs they’ve done, etc. Of course I do. But that said, I grew up Christian….not super religious in the way these people are, but we went to church regularly and I sang in the choir, that sort of thing. I met my husband who is Jewish and felt strongly about raising our kids that way, so I converted, with the understanding that I would not be expected to be very religious as a Jew either. I am ok with religion, but not in any restrictive or extreme form.
One thing that always bothered me about Christianity, the way some practice it, is this whole idea of being “Reborn,” that you “accept Jesus as your savior” and your sins are washed away, yada yada. Of course I believe in forgiveness as I said above, and all that goes with it, BUT I didn’t like that concept. It was like you could got a hall pass just for saying “I accept Jesus.” That’s not something that was emphasized in my church growing up (Episcopalian). I was just taught that if you did something wrong, you should show real regret and try to make up for it. There was no magic formula to make it go away.
I like the way Judaism handles it. Every year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, you are supposed to ask forgiveness for your wrongs not just from God but from the actual people you wronged. There is direct accountability, in theory, earthly consequences.
Sorry to ramble, I just…..I can’t with that whole notion. I read some of the details of what Josh Duggar was viewing, and it really was more shocking than I could have imagined. Just sickening. He has a lot of atoning to do, but it will never be enough.
I once had someone tell me all I had to do to get into heaven was repeat a prayer she told me.
I grew up going to church too, one that focused on being kind to people and helping those in need. Or at least that’s what I took from it. It’s been really sad to see how differently religion impacts people – some live in fear of sin and are told everything about them in sinful, and others think if they say a few words, they can be as awful and hateful and damaging as they want.
Yes. I think forgiveness and redemption are incredibly important, but not the white Evangelical form it’s taken in the U.S., which is that of forgiving white men (only men) just because, no matter how they act. Forgiveness requires change and apologizing. And in that case, it’s deeply important to forgive, or at least to leave the person alone. But reciting a prayer is not change and it is not an apology.
Yep, many of them are just saying the words. Fake Christians. Say one thing but do something completely different. Use God when convenient (like those who join a church so that they can get business out of it). Putting the protection from man above the protection from God.
Anyone who puts greed and power over the Golden Rule is a Faux-Christian. Period. There are way too many of these scumbags who use Christianity to cover their sins and dominate others. They are fake, hypocrites, and vastly immoral.
In almost any other case what I’m about to say would be horrible but….that mugshot alone should revoke any bail.
Yes.. I get chills every time I see that smirk on his face
Anna Duggar is the biggest fool on the planet and Josh should spend at least 20 years in jail. This whole thing stinks to high heaven.
I’d feel happy with him in jail for the rest of his life.
Actually, I have uncovered this hypocrisy about myself: I am opposed to the death penalty because I don’t think the state should have that blood on its hands and because the people who get the death penalty tend to be minorities and poor people. But I have realized that I am okay with the death penalty for treason, for sexually assaulting children and for habitual rapists.
Just the other day, DNA exonerated someone who was found not to be the murderer. Too late for him, as he’d already been killed by the state. https://www.washingtonpost.com/crime-law/2021/05/04/ledell-lee-dna-execution/
Humans are far from perfect, which is why the death penalty must be abolished. Who knows how many other innocent people have been killed because of it. Let Duggar rot in jail — imo it’s a worse fate anyway.
Emily_C, also here in Arkansas.
I would agree.
I feel you. As Emily C says, the problem is the death penalty cannot be administered perfectly in practice. It will never be applied fairly, and mistakes will be made that can never be undone. But I am not opposed to it in theory. I think in certain extreme cases, it would be justifiable.
I had a very similar moment years ago involving a local case (it’s horrible so trigger warning) where a man was abusing his girlfriend’s young daughter, she spoke up and she was moved in with her grandparents. Before the little girl could testify against him, he murdered her and her grandparents. When facing murder trial he threw himself off of a balcony inside the courthouse to his death. I found out about it and my first thought was “good riddance.” Still vehemently against the death penalty but I found a little internal hypocrisy in myself that day.
I’m afraid that Josh Duggar will become a martyr with that cult crowd.
I have a horrible feeling that while on bail, he will end up as a family annihilator. I think he will kill his whole family and then himself. He would do it possibly before trial, but absolutely before sentencing. If my tragic prediction turns out to be true,
I hope Anna’s family sues the sh*t out of the Duggars, and their church and and also that judge. All of them are complict due to depraved indifference towards Josh’s abhorrent child abuse.
Oh my god, what a horrible thought. I had not considered that, but you’re right. He should be considered not just a suicide risk but a homicide risk as well. Didn’t someone up thread say that a co worker who was caught with child porn killed himself? Of course JD has no shame, but still, that is a genuine concern. This is so upsetting. I swear someone should just up and kidnap those children and get them into a good foster home (together). They would be better off.
I was thinking someday, one of these abused girls or women is going to snap and kill her husband or father or brother. I didn’t think about the possibility of him doing it, but I could see it as well.
This was my first thought. It is a nightmare waiting to happen.
I hate to admit it but the thought of him killing himself and taking family with him came to my mind too.😥😥
Her parents wouldn’t do a damn thing. They knew what Josh had done to his sisters before Anna married him and they still made sure it went ahead, they’re as deep in the cult as the Duggars.
Interestingly though a few of Anna’s siblings have left and Anna still has contact with two of them (the one brother that doesn’t have contact is estranged by his choice I think). Despite her parents Anna has had exposure to the real world and continues to be around those siblings. Anyone saying she couldn’t possibly get out and she’s been ultra brainwashed isn’t realising that Anna has been exposed to different ways of living outside the cult in her own family for years. If she’s staying it’s not because she’s too helpless to think for herself.
One of the house arrest conditions is no guns in the house. The appointed custodians had to remove all their own guns and stash them with someone else.
@molee don’t hold your breath, they’re just as deep in the cult as the Duggars and they’re the ones who sold their daughter off to him. Anna and Josh were engaged after meeting only a few times. Her father runs a prison ministry, so it’s fair to say they probably lean towards “forgiving” anything and everything.
I’m sorry but any person in Anna’s situation who doesn’t immediately file for divorce, request full custody without visitation and a restraining order is also a f*****g monster, IMO. Nothing close to him, but still inexcusably neglectful to the safety of her kids.
Anna likely got raped as well. Don’t abusers like to trap and isolate their victims?
Perhaps she can go to her parents? Oh wait, her parents are more into fundamentalist Christian faith than the Duggers!
Anna is uneducated. She has been home-schooled her entire life and then engaged at age 17.
Anna is also living and financially dependent on her in-laws.
You think it’s that easy, no money and no support, to just divorce your abuser?
But she has her brother! Like he can support seven kids!
Josh is the evil pig. Anna is trapped.
I think there is a 0% chance that Josh has not hurt his daughters. This is her chance to get out. Victim or not, she needs to protect her children. Clearly the system isn’t going to. And she obviously has some say in his doings and power in that house if she installed software on his computer to monitor his internet usage.
Anna is a bloody air-headed fool with a clown-car vagina, just like her mother-in-law. No sympathy. None. They should be losing those children. Neither deserve them.
@Kebbie
Her chance to get out was during the Ashley Madison scandal and incest scandal in 2015. Her brother offered her and the kids a place to stay and she chose to remain with the Duggar Family and have more kids.
I 100% believe that Anna Duggar has been brainwashed from birth and most likely abused by someone in her life. However, unfortunately, it does not absolve her of her responsibility to her children. Especially considering the media attention on her family. I’m sure someone would pay her a lot of money (providing an escape route and financial freedom) for her story.
If she wanted to get out, she would have by now.
This whole case gets worse the more we find out and it’s heartbreaking for all of his victims. I was reading something about the family he is being released to, a pastor and his wife, who had no idea about his past. They want to help by healing him with god. That didn’t work before and I just don’t know how they think it will work again.
This entire situation is a recipe for yet another disaster, and the ones who are hurt are his innocent victims. I have to imagine this is also retraumatizing his sisters.
I wish TLC would get rid of any Duggar-related shows because all of the money goes back to cult leader Jim Bob. I doubt the channel will, because it espouses the conservative values the family who owns it has (which is also something I didn’t know until recently).
Anna is brainwashed by that cult to let Josh do whatever he wants to do. I am really really concerned about how this is going to end. The guy is looking at 40 possible years of prison with a pretty solid case against him.
I can’t stop thinking about the Susan Powell case and what happened to her children when her psycho husband was let out on bail and had supervised contact with his sons. The court is not protecting the best interest of these children.
I hate to have to defend Anna, but Josh did something to his computer that bypassed the Covenant Eyes. She did not know about the CP, at least from that software and from that computer.
She KNEW something bad was going on to have put the software in place whether he bypassed it or not. I feel for her as another woman and that she has been brainwashed into believing marriage is sacred but she’s allowed that predator (again, she KNEW there was a problem) around her kids. It’s all so disturbing. God wants her to stay married and subservient at the expense of her and her children… right.
I think the Covenant Eyes was to see if he was on regular porn sites or something like Ashley Madison again.
His father put the app on everybody’s computer. All the kids. His wife was just one of the people who received reports of his online activity. She had no way to know because he bypassed the app.
He had a scandal a few years ago where it came out he was cheating on her, had an Ashley Maddison profile, and a p0rn “addiction.” That’s likely why the covenant eyes was installed, so she could monitor him to make sure he wasn’t cheating or watching. She also knew about him molesting his sisters and another young girl before they were married. So she knew he was pretty disgustingly deviant throughout the entire marriage, with an additional hugely public reminder of his “issues” and complete disregard for their marriage and family a few years ago. He just found a way to hide his most recent child p0rn stuff from the covenant eyes software, but she knew before that.
You’re right… I should have thought about her putting it in place after the A. Mad scandal. I hope she sees this new revelation as an opportunity to save herself and her kids.
I don’t think she necessarily knew about the CP. I’m sure he explained away the stuff with his sisters as teenage curiosity and the other stuff probably didn’t rise to the level of “this concerns my children” for her.
Now, though? Now she has no excuse. If she stays with him after this, if she allows him to be alone with their kids ever again, she’s partially responsible for anything that happens to them.
As soon as you feel you have to monitor your husband’s computer usage, the marriage is over. But women in cults like this are made to feel responsible for their large adult husbands’ sexual behavior, so she probably thought it was “normal.” Not an excuse though.
The federal agent stated that one of the files Josh downloaded was a very notorious file that he said was “among the top 5 worst” out of all the child abuse material he has ever seen. Think of the thousands and thousands he has seen. Top. FIVE. WORST. And Josh downloaded that stuff to pleasure himself to.
@Lola Exactly ! Those are the words that haunt me!!! Good Lord, they must be F**KING horrific! This whole situation is beyond disgusting me on so many levels. It was revealed years ago, he had a problem (touching his own sisters and a babysitter at 14), and his parents/family attempted to sweep it under the rug. He was caught cheating on his wife; still she does nothing!! As others have pointed out, his wife had that software installed, knowing he STILL probably had issues!! Pedophilia is one of those areas in psychology where experts are very divided on whether or not treatment is EVEN possible!! So to just turn a blind eye and pretend this crap was not going on – is beyond reprehensible to me!! I cannot muster pity for his wife. She chose to stay in all this vile. Look at Camille Cosby – she did the same thing; standing by her husband Bill Cosby, as he drugged and raped countless women over the years, and just stayed in denial! Except this time, all those children could be potential innocent victims!! That is the tragedy of sexual abuse – you literally destroy that child’s life. Yes, recovery is possible, but they are forever changed by the monster who violated them for their selfish needs!! I just can’t with this story! Please let him rot in jail.
They are horrific. I was reading about the case and before I knew it I had read two sentences too far and knew what was in those videos. It is beyond belief. I will say that Camille Cosby is worse in the sense that she is an educated woman who could have left her husband and been financially secure. Anna has no education, no experience beyond her family and Josh’s both of which are controlled by this cult and its beliefs. She has six kids and another on the way. Now, I would think her mother’s primal instinct would just be screaming “get them out of here now”, now that she knows he’s been watching child pornography involving kids the same age as hers. Just, you would think that protection and flight instinct would kick in?
@Ann Yes, that is a good point about Camille Cosby. She could have had a life independent of her husband most def. She just chose to remain in denial and refuse to see him for the rapist he was! I do understand Anna is brainwashed to some extent here, but yes, as a mother, wouldn’t your sense of protecting your children override everything!!! I know it would for me! But, to know my POS husband is turned on by child porn, and cheated on me repeatedly – UGH! I know I am a different woman than her, but I would have left his sick & pathetic ass a LONG time ago!
@Ann, I actually had to stop reading about it on certain websites because I was terrified I would read the graphic description of exactly what was in the video and then never be able to un-know. As someone with PTSD I’m already walking the edge of what will really trigger me by reading about this at all, but I think it’s extremely important to be discussing it. But I really need to avoid those actual descriptions.
He downloaded and deleted it three times.He clearly couldn’t get enough. How could he be released? I am terrified for his children. How can CPS not be intervening?
There aren’t enough vile words in the English language to properly encapsulate everything wrong here. Pedophiles do not magically stop being sexually aroused around minors. They simply don’t, incarceration or not. Therapy or no therapy. It’s for this very reason they can’t reside near schools, parks and anywhere children congregate. This judge has failed everyone around this man and his family as well as anyone coming into his orbit in the future.
“Conservative values” = Let the white man run free and do what he wants when he wants and to who he wants. Screw women and children unless they can be used for some kind of gain for the white man (make money).
C’mon Arkansas. You can do better…..or maybe this is your best.
Yep and when men of color proclaim “conservative values,” much of the time it just means they want to replicate that within their own communities as well, doing what they want and to who they want to those “beneath” them.
This is a major reason I don’t even consider moving to Deep South states like Arkansas, Louisiana, or Mississippi. (And I would be wary even of the blue areas.) Way too much patriarchy and racism still woven into the legal system there–and it’s when you need help most, you run right into it.
The lag between the raid and arrest is because Bill Barr was in charge, exchanging support for Trump by protecting people like Josh, Matt, and Rudy from prosecution. Josh has been photographed with Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Rick Santorium, and Rubio.
No one should be surprised that the judge let him out on bail and allowed him contact with his kids, look at how many judges were letting the insurrectionists out on bail, travel to other countries, special diets while being held, or charging them with very minor offenses. The system is broken, people like Josh commit horrible crimes and there are no consequences for their actions simply because of who they have aligned with. Trump and the republicans succeeded in putting judges in place that will promote and support their agenda. This is a major issue that needs to be addressed because these judges are making decisions(judge allowing AZ audit, the judge not extending programs that stop evictions, judges allowing these voter restriction laws, judges looking the other way when people like Josh and Matt step before them) that are and will end up harming everyone.
Another disturbing sidebar is that if the 2015 scandal hadn’t happened, I’m sure Josh would have been a member of congress by now. That appeared to be his end-game
I seriously hope Biden and the Dems either have a way to remove or negate Trump’s judicial choices. Of all the damage that bastard wreaked, letting the right-wing virus loose in the legal system is one of the worst.
Obviously not a lawyer but it seems like child advocates are needed here. Someone has to speak up for these kids.
Also who cares if it is the presence of his wife, she is fine with being married to a child molester so what good is she? If anything happens to those children I hope she loses custody.
She is likely an abused woman who grew up in a cult like environment. There is no evidence that she is unfit to care for her kids. Since when does being married to a bad person mean that a mother is an unfit parent? I have many clients who were abused and mistreated by spouses and never in a billion years would I suggest that they should wear the sins of their spouse. That is literally victim blaming. It takes women time to get out, and she has six kids and is pregnant during a pandemic so where exactly is she gonna go? She doesn’t work and can’t get an apartment for seven (!) people with no proof of income. But according to you she should have all of her children put not the foster care system and likely separated from their siblings, never to see their mother again. Comments like this keep women in this situation.
This woman knows the danger her husband presents to her children. She knew this before she had children with him. The world knows it, and she has software downloaded on her computer SPECIFICALLY to monitor if he’s looking at child pornography. So…it sounds like she is NOT fit to care for her children, whether she’s brainwashed or not. These kids belong with the family who got out and will protect them. This mother is NOT doing that.
Her failings as an adult and parent should not also be worn by her children. It’s unfortunate that they may need to go to foster care, etc. But she has created this situation. She may have been a victim, but now she is actively creating more victims.
Dig the deepest hole possible and shove this guy in it!
No way I would let him be with his kids unsupervised, and I mean never take my eyes off him.
Stay right where I can see you, hands on the table at all times, no holding the kids on his lap, no whispering to the kids in case he tries to coach the kids on anything that may have happened.
IRL, I fought for and got court ordered supervised visitation only against my now Ex-Husband.
Security audio/video on the entire time + trained staff in the room.
No way on planet Earth would I ever agree that he could be alone with her. Period.
I told my lawyer I would sell my home to pay the legal fees if needed to fight him to my last breath.
Those poor kids, CPS better be on top of this case!
the argument that he is recognizable is ridiculous and negligent. I am not a unicorn and would never recognize that face. I just know the last name from gossip sites…
Why only two charges? There’s three days’ worth or downloading, with multiple downloading on at least the first and especially second day.