AnnaandJosh Duggarwalked into court hand-in-hand on Tuesday for day one of his child sexual abuse material trial.
The trial, which will begin with a day of jury selection, comes about seven months after Josh, 33, wasarrestedand charged with receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material. He haspleaded not guiltyto the charges.
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The two also shareMackynzie Renée, 12,Michael James, 10,Marcus Anthony, 8,Meredith Grace, 6,Mason Garrett, 4, andMaryella Hope, 2.
From left: Anna and Josh Duggar.Anna Duggar/instagram
“She thinks Josh is innocent,” the source said at the time, adding, “[Josh] has seen [his] children with Anna there. She has to be there.”
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The scandal came to light in May 2015 when Josh apologized for his “wrongdoing” after a 2006 police report revealed that he had been investigated as a teen for inappropriately touching five underage girls. Two of his sisters subsequentlystepped forward claiming to be victims.
Duringhis testimony, Jim Bob, 56, said he couldn’t remember the details of Josh’s admissions that he had touched the victims, identified during the proceeding as Jane Does 1 through 4.
“We tried to handle things in house,” he said at one point. “It was a very difficult time in our family’s life.”
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Josh has been accused ofdownloading filesdepicting child sex abuse on May 14, 15 and 16 of 2019 on thecomputer at his then-workplace, a used car lot in Arkansas. Prosecutors believe he hadmore than 200 explicit images of children on the computer.
If convicted of the charges against him, the former reality star faces up to 20 years of imprisonment and up to $250,000 in fines on each of the two counts fora total possible sentence of 40 years, according to an April press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Arkansas.
If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 connected to a certified crisis counselor.
source: people.com
