And now, a word from the other side.
On May 11, as previously detailed on The Hollywood Gossip, Josh Duggar’s defense team submitted a sentencing memorandum in the Western District of Arkansas Federal Court in Fayetteville.
These lawyers argued that Duggar only deserves to spend five years in prison — after getting convicted in December on two counts of child sex abuse — because he’s a “devoted family man” without a prior criminal record.
On the same date, meanwhile, prosecutors in this same case released their own sentencing memorandum.
The bottom line of the document states that Duggar should be sentenced to a minimum of 20 years behind bars, opening by listing the misdeed for which Josh was found guilty:
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Downloading and viewing child pornography over a four-day period. -
Using a “hidden partition on his work computer.” -
Using “BitTorrent Peer-to-Peer file-sharing client.”
The memo reads that “the conduct established at trial supports the application of all contested enhancements and establishes that the offense involved 600 or more images, warranting the application of a five-level enhancement.”
Duggar, as you likely know by now, downloaded MANY sexually explicit photos and videos of children under 12 years old on his workplace computer.
According to federal agents who raided his office, some of these photos and videos were among the worst material the authorities had ever seen on the job.
One, for example, featured the rape of an 18-month old.
There really are no words to even try to respond to such a thing, you know?
The prosecution filing makes note of Duggar’s “prior sexual exploitation of multiple minors,” a reference to Duggar having molested his own sisters as a teenager.
It also cites “the extraordinary efforts Duggar took to obtain and view child sexual abuse materials (CSAM), the nature of the CSAM he obtained and viewed, his efforts to conceal his criminal conduct, and his refusal to take accountability for or acknowledge any of his criminal conduct.”
Elsewhere, the lawyers labeled Duggar a “very savvy computer user.”
They countered claims made by the defense that Josh was somehow ignorant in this regard and never “distributed” any of the disgusting material he downloaded.
The memo emphasized that a severe sentencing was required due to the type of videos Josh stored on his computer, and how they “portray sadistic or masochistic conduct or other depictions of violence.”
Relatedly, prosecutors are seeking an enhancement for “engaging in a pattern of activity involving the sexual abuse of minors,” citing Duggar’s “repeated acts of child molestation” that were detailed during the trial through testimony by family friend Bobye Holt.
The filing also notes remarks about molestation made by the defendant’s father, Jim Bob Duggar, at a pretrial hearing.
As is often the case at trials, these attorneys cited precedent in their filing as well, bringing up similar cases and affiliated sentencing for other convicted pedophiles.
The memo went on to explain the “great lengths” Duggar took to circumvent Covenant Eyes accountability software on his computer in order to download these photos/photos and “at the same time conceal and therefore prolong his ability to engage in this conduct.”
States the memo:
He went through the effort to download, install, and password protect this partition — all to avoid detection. Duggar, perhaps more than any other individual presented to this Court, was willing to go through exhaustive efforts to obtain CSAM without detection.
Duggar’s criminal activity was also deliberate and precise.
Over and over, the document brings up Josh’s history of molestation.
It says such past behavior “provides an alarming window into the extent of his sexual interest in children.”
“Duggar has a deep-seated, pervasive, and violent sexual interest in children,” the motion reads.
“And a willingness to act on that interest.”
In one of the more disturbing sections of the 30-page filing, the prosecution includes a quote from a parent of one of the girls depicted in the illegal material that Duggar downloaded.
This mother notes that her daughter “became an anxious and fretful shadow of her former self” after being sexually abused.
For all these reasons, the prosecution argues, the judge must issue a “sentence to reflect the seriousness of the offense,” adding:
Duggar is “an offender who has a history of sexually abusing minors, who has not received any treatment or therapy for this conduct to speak of, who appears unlikely to ever seek out or meaningfully participate in treatment or therapy to address this conduct, and who continues to deny any responsibility for his past or present crimes.”
Duggar will be sentenced on May 25.
This is what the prosecution wrote toward the end of its memo:
There is simply no indication that Duggar will ever take the steps necessary to change this pattern of behavior and address his predilection for minor females.
Given these circumstances, this Court should be particularly mindful in crafting its sentence of the likelihood that Duggar reoffends upon his release from incarceration and what his reoffending conduct will entail.
