FAYETTEVILLE -- Former reality television star Josh Duggar faces more than a decade behind bars for downloading child pornography after a Wednesday hearing.
Duggar was convicted Dec. 9 of possessing child pornography by a federal jury. U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks sentenced Duggar to 12½ years in federal prison Wednesday.
Duggar, 34, the oldest son of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, is best known for being part of his family's cable television reality show "19 Kids and Counting" on the TLC channel. The show, which chronicled the Duggar family's home life, was canceled in 2015 after it became public knowledge that, as a teen, Josh Duggar molested four of his sisters and another girl.
He was charged in federal court with two counts involving receiving and possessing child pornography. The jury found him guilty on both counts after more than six hours of deliberation over two days. Duggar, of Springdale, was sentenced on the single count of receiving child pornography because possession of child pornography is considered a lesser included offense under federal law.
The sentence was less than what was sought by prosecutors, who sought the maximum 20 years, and more than the five years defense attorneys wanted.
Clay Fowlkes, U.S. attorney, said after the sentencing hearing he was pleased with the outcome because it sends a message that child pornography will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
"This is a lengthy sentence. While it's not the sentence we asked for, it's a sentence we're proud of," Fowlkes said. "We will continue to investigate these cases no matter who the defendant turns out to be, and we will continue to use every tool available to us to make sure that justice is served in these cases."
Duggar was remanded to the custody of U.S. marshals for transfer to a federal prison, most likely in Texas.
Brooks allowed a number of sentencing enhancements on top of Duggar's base offense level, which pushed his sentencing guideline up significantly from most child porn cases.
"Compared to the average offender, you start out a whole lot higher," Brooks said.
One was a five-level increase for past bad acts related to Duggar's history of molesting young girls when he was a teenager. The defense argued it should not apply because Duggar was never charged with or convicted of a crime and almost 20 years have passed. But Brooks found from a preponderance of the evidence that Duggar had committed second-degree assault.
"This court believes there has been conduct of sexual assault that creates a pattern of conduct," Brooks said.
The judge noted it was troubling that one of Duggar's victims was roughly the same age as the children in the pornography he downloaded. Brooks said he was also bothered by the great lengths Duggar went to defeat pornography-reporting software installed on his computer by his wife and the sophisticated technology he used.
The other thorny issue Wednesday was determining how many images of child porn Duggar actually downloaded. The defense said 127; prosecutors said 725. Brooks determined the number to be 590, which added four levels to sentencing; 600 images would have bumped that up to five additional levels. Brooks said he believed there were probably more than 600 images but said he couldn't prove that.
Brooks said while the number of images was low for a child porn case, the images were some of the worst he has seen in his time on the bench.
Duggar was denied a reduction in sentence for acceptance of responsibility. He did not make a statement during his sentencing hearing nor did he testify at trial.
Lawyers for Duggar said an appeal is planned, and they didn't want him admitting to anything.
Brooks rejected a request from prosecutors to figure in Duggar's past infidelity, in which he got caught up in the Ashley Madison dating app scandal and said at the time he had been unfaithful to his wife and was addicted to pornography. Brooks said neither was relevant for sentencing purposes but may be relevant for determining treatment options and conditions of supervised release.
The defense had more than 20 objections to the presentence report that Brooks had to work through. When done, the sentencing enhancements pushed the sentencing guideline range higher than the statutory maximum sentence of 20 years and fines of up to $250,000, so Brooks used 20 years as a base for sentencing purposes and worked from there.
Brooks noted the case was odd because all the online child porn activity happened in a three-day period then seemingly stopped. A search warrant was not served until six months later and all the child porn had by then been deleted.
"That's a fact pattern I've never seen before," Brooks said.
Dustin Roberts, assistant U.S. attorney, said the times correlated to when there were no employees around Duggar's car dealership.
"That's when he was alone," Roberts said.
Duggar was also ordered to serve 20 years supervised release after his prison term ends and was fined $10,000.
Conditions of supervised release include having no unsupervised contact with children, and he's banned from any kind of pornography.
He's forbidden from having a computer or any other electronic device that has internet or photograph storage capabilities without prior advance notice and approval of the U.S. Probation Office. There is an exception if Duggar is working on an employer's premises using his employer's computers and devices.
The judge's order says reasonable requests by Duggar for computer access should not be denied provided Duggar allows the probation office to install internet-monitoring software, pays for the software, and submits to random searches of his computers, electronic devices and peripherals.
Duggar must participate in, and pay for, a sex offense treatment program and submit to periodic polygraph testing at the discretion of the probation office to ensure that he is in compliance with the requirements of his supervision or treatment program.
Brooks also assessed three special assessment fees totaling $40,100, which are due immediately. One, for $35,000, is specifically related to sex offenses.
Prosecutors accused Duggar in early 2021 of using the internet to download and view child pornography, some of which depicts the sexual abuse of children younger than 12, according to court documents. They told jurors child pornography was repeatedly downloaded on the computer at Duggar's used car lot May 14, 15 and 16 of 2019.
Duggar's attorneys contended he didn't do it and suggested an unidentified, remote user may have downloaded the child porn. They also argued that 20 years on a child porn conviction would be excessive, entirely unwarranted and unprecedented for the crime.
Criminal sentencing enhancements
Criminal sentencing enhancements increase the possible sentence for a crime. Typically, enhancements relate to the defendant’s criminal history or specific details regarding the circumstances of the crime that increase its gravity. Sentencing enhancements bump up the possible penalty the judge may impose upon a conviction. Sometimes referenced interchangeably with enhancements, aggravating factors play a similar but different role in criminal sentencing. A judge can look at aggravating factors of a crime to impose a sentence at the higher end of the allowable range.
Source: Lawyers.com
Jim Bob Duggar leaves the federal courthouse in Fayetteville Wednesday May 25, 2022 after a judge sentenced his son Josh Duggar to 12 and a half years in federal prison for downloading child pornography. Duggar, 34, of Springdale, was charged in federal court with two counts involving receiving and possessing child pornography. The jury found him guilty on both counts after more than six hours of deliberation over two days. He was sentenced on the single count of receiving child pornography because possession of child pornography is considered a lesser included offense under federal law. See nwaonline.com/220526Daily/ for daily galleries. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/J.T. Wampler).JT Wampler
U.S. attorney Clay Fowlkes speaks to media Wednesday after a judge sentenced Josh Duggar to 12½ years in federal prison for downloading child pornography. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/J.T. Wampler)