The Supreme Court has decided not to hear an appeal from Josh Duggar, a former reality TV star who was convicted of downloading images of child sexual abuse. Duggar, who used to be on the TLC show “19 Kids and Counting” with his large family, was found guilty in 2021.
As is common, the Supreme Court didn’t explain why they rejected Duggar’s appeal.
The case began when police in Little Rock, Arkansas, discovered that someone was sharing child sexual abuse material from a computer linked to Duggar. Investigators found that in 2019, images showing the sexual abuse of children, including very young ones, were downloaded onto a computer at Duggar’s car dealership. He was given a 12.5-year prison sentence for this crime.
Duggar’s lawyers tried to argue that they should have been allowed to question a former employee of the dealership about his past sex-offense conviction. This employee had used the same computer. However, the judge rejected this, and Duggar’s lawyers chose not to have the former employee testify. Lower courts have agreed with the original conviction, rejecting Duggar’s arguments.
This wasn’t the first time Duggar faced such accusations. In 2015, TLC canceled “19 Kids and Counting” after it came out that Duggar had reportedly molested four of his sisters and a babysitter years earlier.
The police investigated but couldn’t charge him because too much time had passed.
When these allegations became public in 2015, Duggar’s parents said he had admitted to the inappropriate touching and had apologized privately.
Duggar then made a public apology for unspecified behavior and quit his job as a lobbyist for the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian organization.