One day before he’s scheduled to appear in court and be sentenced for a pair of sex abuse charges, Josh Duggar saw his last ditch effort for a an acquittal or a new trial get denied.
On Tuesday, Judge Timothy L. Brooks issued his ruling against the defense, striking down its filed claim that the government failed to “disclose certain evidence” and, as a result, Duggar was entitled to another trial.
Or even, in the defense’s grandest of dreams, a flat-our acquittal.
Duggar, of course, was found guilty of downloading sexually graphic material from his workplace computer on December 9, 2021.
Said Judge Brooks in regard to the defense’s motion to dismiss:
“A verdict will only be overturned if no reasonable jury could have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Further, his ruling noted that “the district court will only set aside the verdict if the evidence weighs heavily enough against the verdict that a miscarriage of justice may have occurred.”
The previous defense filing stated that the court should enter a judgment of acquittal because “the jury was not presented evidence sufficient to show he actually viewed any child pornography.”
Simply put?
The judge said on Tuesday that this argument holds “no merit,” adding:
“There is ample evidence he viewed the images of child pornography that had been downloaded to his business computer.”
Brooks went on to cite the testimony of the prosecution’s first witness, the Little Rock undercover police officer that first connected to Duggar via peer-to-peer file sharing software.
According to a subsequent witness, a federal forensics expert, Josh was responsible for the aforementioned material — which included such stomach-turning videos as the rape of an 18-month old.
Judge Brooks also referred to a specific piece of evidence submitted by the prosecution the “coup de grace.”
The document in question was a timeline summarizing “50 or 60 exhibits of forensic evidence recovered from Mr. Duggar’s HP desktop, iPhone 11, iPhone 8, and Macbook.”
Again, simply put?
The judge deemed that the evidence provided in court proved that Josh did, indeed, download and view copious examples of illegal images.
“Based on the Court’s discussion of the trial evidence above, there is no merit to Mr. Duggar’s argument in favor of acquittal,” said Brooks on Tuesday.
“There was significant evidence presented at trial to convince a reasonable jury that Mr. Duggar was physically present during the offense conduct and that he had the mens rea to commit these crimes.
“Accordingly, his request for relief under rule 29 is DENIED.”
Elsewhere over the past few months, Josh’s lawyers have tried to argue that Duggar was set up.
They even named a former co-worked named Caleb Williams as the alleged pedophile.
HOWEVER…
“The defense’s promise of an alternative perpetrator came to nothing, as the evidence at trial showed that Mr. Duggar — and only Mr. Duggar — was physically present at the car lot when child pornography was being downloaded,” said Brooks in response.
Duggar will now be sentenced on Wednesday, May 25.
His attorneys have sent multiple letters to the judge from members of the Duggar family, all of which try to paint Duggar as a devoted family man who deserves a lenient sentence.
Conversely, the prosecution has asked for Duggar to be sentenced to 20 years behind bars.
