[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
Are they serious with this?!
If you’ve been following Josh Duggar‘s child porn trial, you know prosecutors put on a hell of a case in the past week. Not only did Department of Justice tech experts walk the jury through how the offending videos were acquired and hidden on the 19 Kids and Counting star’s work computer, they also showed how he was the only person who logically could have put them there. And they did it in a way even we understood it! We mean, it was Josh’s computer, his cell phone data places him there at the time… heck, it was the same password to get to the secret porn stash as was on the official Duggar Instagram account — Josh’s birthday!
Related: The Story Of The ‘Most Offensive’ Thing Josh Is Accused Of Downloading
Following that, you had the soul-crushing testimony of a family friend who learned about Josh molesting her daughters, touching their “private areas” when he was 14. One of those girls was just four years old.
It’s been a brief but harrowing trial to cover, but it’s seemed like a slam dunk case for the prosecution to us. Nevertheless, Josh’s defense made a motion to acquit on Monday following the prosecution resting! If the motion had passed, that would mean Josh would be free to go without the jury ever weighing in!
Josh is facing one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. Attorney Justin Gelfand argued the prosecution had “insufficient evidence of known possession” and “insufficient evidence of actually knowing receipt by Mr. Duggar of child pornography.” Um… see above?
Assistant US Attorney Carly Marshall said in response to the motion:
“I believe that evidence sufficient to go to the jury has been heard.”
Not surprisingly, Judge Timothy L. Brooks agreed with the prosecution, easily denying the motion. In fact, he went so far as to say he found there was “well more than sufficient evidence” and that there was “a plethora of evidence here to suggest a reasonable jury from which they could find there was possession.”
Sounds like the judge was hearing the same evidence we were. It’s unclear what else the defense will try, if they’ll call any more Duggars to the stand — there are a couple on the witness list. But if this is all they’ve got, the jury could get to deliberation by midweek — and we’d bet that’s bad news for Josh.
[Image via Washington County Sheriff’s Office/CBS 5News/YouTube.]
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