Supreme Court rejects Josh Duggar's child pornography appeal
The Supreme Court has closed the book on Josh Duggar's child pornography case.
On Monday, the United States' highest court denied the disgraced reality TV star's appeal to his May 2022 sentencing, according to docket records viewed by USA TODAY.
Duggar, who originally rose to fame on the TLC reality show "19 Kids and Counting," was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service in April 2021 and was later found guilty on one count each of receiving and possessing child pornography.
USA TODAY has reached out to attorneys for Duggar and the Department of Justice.
At his sentencing, Duggar received 12 1/2 years behind bars, a $10,000 fine and orders to attend a mandatory "sex offense-specific treatment program."
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Josh Duggar's attorneys argued someone else could have downloaded child pornography to his business
Authorities said they began investigating Duggar after a Little Rock, Arkansas, police detective found child porn files shared by a computer traced to Duggar. A federal agent testified in 2021 that images depicting the sexual abuse of children, including toddlers, were downloaded in 2019 onto a computer at a car dealership Duggar owned.
Despite the evidence and conviction, Duggar's lawyer has maintained his innocence, saying the images could have been downloaded by someone else at the dealership. He said at the time of sentencing that he "looked forward" to the appeal.
Josh Duggar denied appeal,will stay in prison on child pornography charges until 2032
The Supreme Court said in an opposition document filed on May 21 that "there is no dispute that child pornography was downloaded to the computer at petitioner's business."
Furthermore they argued that the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit was within their right to reject testimony from a former employee of Duggar because there was "no evidence" that placed the employee "at the car lot on any of the relevant dates."
The lower court of appeals denied Duggar's plea for another trial in October.
He will have to continue serving out his sentence until it's complete on Oct. 2, 2032. (Duggar previously was scheduled for release in August of 2032 but his sentence was extended thanks to a contraband cellphone.)
Josh Duggar's problematic history
The oldest child of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, Josh appeared on the show "19 Kids and Counting" chronicling their massive, hyper religious family until 2015 when it was cancelled following revelations that Josh had molested four of his sisters and a babysitter when he was a young teen.
He was later caught on Ashley Madison, a dating website advertised as a place for married people looking for an affair to find partners. He made a public apology at the time for cheating on his wife and admitted to a pornography addiction.
TLC spun off another series "Counting On" following the now-adult Duggar children and their budding young families, but that show was also canceled in June 2021 following Josh's arrest.
Contributing: Mary Walrath-Holdridge