Josh Duggar appeared in court on Wednesday afternoon for an hours-long hearing to determine if he would be let out on bail.
During the hearing, some truly horrifying details were shared about the contents for which Duggar was charged. Hundreds of child sexual abuse images were found on a computer at his office at a used car dealership, a laptop in his RV, and a backup of an iPhone 8 saved to that laptop. The youngest child featured in these images was an 18-month-old.
It's the lengths that Duggar went to in trying to hide what he was accessing that are also a point of concern. He took steps to conceal the activity from other users on the devices and even sidestepped surveillance technology to do so. There's also his history of abuse and alleged sex addiction, which the judge noted would be taken into account. Despite these and many more troubling factors, the judge determined that Duggar could be released on bail, but under some particular circumstances.
The Josh Duggar bail hearing had a lot of shocking moments on Wednesday afternoon, as the 33-year-old awaited the judge's decision as to whether he'd remain in jail.
The virtual hearing had over 70 people in attendance, including Josh's sister and previous victim, Jill Dillard. Also in attendance was Duggar cousin Amy King. Based on the names used by the attendees, Duggar fans also believe that John David Duggar and Josiah Duggar's wife, Lauren Swanson, were also there.
The meeting began with prosecution witness Special Agent Gerald Faulkner of Homeland Security speaking on the investigation into Duggar. The agent, who has been working such investigations since 2009, explained that the investigation began when authorities were looking into the illegal activity of a particular BitTorrent client in Duggar's area of Arkansas. Child sexual abuse images were being distributed through peer-to-peer file-sharing networks.
Special Agent Faulkner explained they were able to trace the images to Duggar's workplace, which is where investigators conducted a raid in November 2019. At the time, no one hinted at the nature of the investigation to Duggar or the other two individuals present.
Police confiscated Duggar's phone, which he claimed to have taken out to call his attorney. They also recovered a desktop computer, the desktop background of which was a photo of Duggar, wife Anna Duggar, and their children, as well as a MacBook laptop found in an RV on the lot.
Duggar agreed to speak to investigators about what was going on. He asked them, "What is this about? Has anyone been downloading child pornography?" — which was of interest to investigators considering no one had, to that point, mentioned child sexual abuse imagery as part of the investigation.
He was read his Miranda rights before confirming that the two computers and phone were his, though he said other family members had access to his laptop. He told police his devices might be involved in peer-to-peer file sharing and that the desktop might have a dark web browser (TOR) on it.
Authorities explained that images of children between the ages of 5 and 10 had been accessed from one of the devices at the car lot. Duggar was asked if he had any reason to believe someone would be accessing those kinds of images at the location, to which he replied, "I'd rather not answer that question."
On the desktop computer, they discovered a Christian activity-logging software used by Anna Duggar to ensure her husband was not accessing anything inappropriate on his computer. They also discovered a partition that was being used to access said inappropriate content.
The agent went on to describe the content, which included over 200 images and two videos containing children between the ages of 18 months and 12 years old.
"I can say in 11 years of doing this and the thousands and thousands of child pornography images and videos I've had unfortunately to see, the … series ranks in the top five of the worst of the worst that I've ever had to examine," he said.
"Multiple child pornography files were … found in a recently viewed folder, meaning that the user had unzipped those torrent files and had viewed them on the desktop. Approximately over 200 images that were flagged as child sexual abuse material involving naked minors engaging in sexual activity were located."
The hearing moved on to discussing the possibility of Duggar's release on bail. He would have to be released to a third party and would not be allowed to return to his home or his parents' home.
The third party is a couple who are family friends of the Duggars, LaCount and Maria Reber. The two were willing to take Duggar in despite the fact that children come in and out of the home for piano lessons. Authorities were also concerned that there are a number of firearms in the home. The Rebers agreed to remove the firearms and move the lessons to another location.
The defense additionally had to argue why Duggar wouldn't be a flight risk. Aside from his family and ties to the community, they noted Duggar has been aware of the investigation since 2019 and hadn't made any attempts to run or hide. They also argued he couldn't escape or pose any further harm because he's such a publicly recognizable figure.
Judge Christy Comstock of the US District Court for the Western District of Arkansas noted a number of concerning factors before delivering her ruling. She noted that the number of images, age of the victims, and sophistication of means to access these images were troubling to the court. She also noted that his past admissions of sexual abuse were concerning, regardless of the fact that there were no legal charges involved.
Despite these factors, Duggar is innocent until proven guilty and does not have a criminal record, which were major factors in her decision to ultimately grant bail.
Duggar was granted bail on what are considered strict conditions. He isn't permitted to return to his home or his parents' home due to the minors present. They granted him to be released to the Rebers with GPS monitoring that only allows him to attend church, go to work, get medical services, meet with attorneys, fulfill other court-ordered obligations, or perform other preapproved activities.
He cannot use technology, view or possess any kind of erotica, leave the Western District of Arkansas, possess any firearms, or use any substances.
The judge advised Josh not to push the boundaries or break rules, especially when it came to being around children. He is only allowed to be near his own children — ages 11, 9, 7, 5, 3, and 18 months — with their mother's complete supervision.
To say that most following this case were disgusted by the judge's decision would be a gross understatement. People were pretty angry that so much leniency is being shown to Duggar and noted his extreme privilege despite what he's being accused of.
