FAYETTEVILLE -- Josh Duggar's child pornography trial opened this morning with the defense telling jurors someone else downloaded the images or placed them on the computer at Duggar's used car lot.
"If you like a mystery, then this is the case for you," Justin Gilfand, representing Duggar, told jurors in his opening statement. "This is a classic, old fashioned whodunit."
U.S. Prosecutor Dustin Roberts countered with logs showing, minute-by-minute, the activity on Duggar's computer alternating between sending personal messages, downloading child porn and saving pictures of notes.
Duggar, 33, of Springdale, is charged in federal court with two counts involving receiving and possessing child pornography. He faces up to 20 years of imprisonment and fines up to $250,000 on each count if convicted.
Duggar, best known for being part of his family's cable television reality show, is accused of using the internet in May 2019 to download and possess the material, some of which depicts the sexual abuse of children younger than 12, according to court documents.
Prosecutors say Detective Amber Kalmer in Little Rock used a law enforcement tool to download files depicting the sexual abuse of children directly from Duggar's computer. The detective then sent a lead related to her undercover downloads to Special Agent Gerald Faulkner with Homeland Security Investigations, who determined the IP address was assigned to Dug-gar's small used-car dealership in Springdale at the time of the downloads.
Faulkner obtained a warrant to search the business. The dealership's computer and multiple electronic devices belonging to Duggar were seized. Based on forensic evidence found on those devices, among other evidence, a federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment charging Duggar with receipt and possession of child pornography.