The more we find out about the Duggars’ response to Josh’s arrest on child pornography charges, the more it becomes apparent that he was only able to get away with so much because of the manner in which he was enabled by those around him.
When Josh molested his sisters, his parents did everything they could to help him avoid prosecution.
And after Josh was busted for downloading child sexual abuse materials, his wife remained more concerned with keeping her husband happy than with protecting her kids.
Last week, Josh was sentenced to 12 and half years in prison for his crimes.
In an effort to secure him a lighter sentence, several friends and family members wrote letters to the judge begging for leniency.
Ironically, they may have made his situation worse by reminding the judge that Josh is surrounded by eager enablers.
One of the letters came from a man named LaCount Reber.
When Josh was released on bond following his arrest, he was not permitted to live with children, which meant that he could not move back into the home he had shared with Anna.
Instead, he lived with family friends the Rebers — and as LaCount’s letter reveals, Josh continued to spend a good deal of time with his kids.
“I am writing on behalf of Joshua Duggar, to share with you my personal observations, after he came to live with our family this past year leading up to his trial. This living arrangement allowed us to get to know him and his family,” Reber wrote, according to documents obtained by Radar Online.
“Joshua displayed a great amount of patience and kindness as he interacted with his wife and children,” he continued.
“During their visits I would often see him playing games, reading a book, constructing legos, playing basketball, throwing a football or taking walks with his wife and children.”
Like the others who wrote letters to the judge, LaCount made no mention of Josh’s crimes.
But he did remind the judge that unless Josh is locked up until his kids are grown, he’ll be spending a lot of unsupervised time with young kids.
“Joshua displayed a great deal of care and consideration as he interacted with them,” LaCount wrote.
“He would patiently instruct his children, for example when it was time to clean up toys or tidy the area by encouraging and walking through the process with them and showing by example what he wanted them to do, patiently following through until the task was completed.”
LaCount went on to note that Josh adhered to the rules of his probation — as though he deserves special credit for that.
“He was given very specific guidelines relating to times of departure and return from work,” he wrote.
“He would set his alarm to make sure that he left exactly during the window that he was given. I do not recall that he ever violated any of the guidelines or rules that were set for him.”
Like the other letter writers, LaCount may have done more harm than good.
So maybe we should be thanking them for making sure that that monster will be locked up for a very long time.
