Is it possible the government was trying to make sure people were apprised of who Josh Duggar really was — and someone stepped in and put an end to that?
As our regular readers surely know by now, the 19 Kids And Counting alum was arrested back in April on charges of downloading and possession of child pornography. Federal agents made it clear how this was a particularly egregious example of the already horrific act, with one saying the photos and video of children as young as 18 months old were “in the top five of the worst of the worst that I’ve ever had to examine.”
Ever since, we’ve been worried about the safety of all the children he’s been in contact with over the past few years, including his own. Sorry to say, but with accusations like these, how could we not??
Related: Josh’s Child Porn Arrest Has Caused Duggar Family Civil War
Well, according to claims being made in some recent legal docs, there may have been at least some protective barrier available for others who potentially had their children around him — for a while at least.
The filing, obtained by DailyMail.com, was by the city of Springdale, Arkansas as well as other defendants in a lawsuit first filed by Josh’s sisters.
Back in 2015, In Touch magazine broke the story that the eldest Duggar had been previously accused — though never charged — with molesting four of his underage sisters as well as a family friend when he was just 14 years old. His sisters were incredibly upset — not at Josh, whom they said they’d forgiven, but that the story had gotten out at all.
The tabloid had gotten the story by filing a Freedom of Information Act request with the city, which gave them the unredacted 2006 police report. So Jill, Jessa, Jinger, and Joy Duggar filed a lawsuit in 2017 against the City of Springdale, claiming it was a breach of privacy which caused them “extreme mental anguish and emotional distress.”
Springdale’s latest defense is claiming that even without their assent to the FOIA request, anyone could have gotten the story because it was already public information — because Josh was on the sex offender registry in the state of Arkansas.
However, the former TLC star is not currently listed on the sex offender registry! (Well, not yet, he’s sure to end up there again after these new charges.) Their contention is that he was there — and was removed! They wrote in the filing:
“Upon information and belief, Joshua Duggar was placed on the sex offender registry and a legal proceeding was undertaken to remove Joshua Duggar from the sex offender registry.”
If his name was wiped from the registry, the defendants’ only recourse is to get the documentation of that from the Arkansas Department of Human Services. However, thus far the DHS has filed a Motion to Quash the subpoena, saying they can’t give that information because it involves underage children.
Related: Duggars Respond To Counting Finally Being Canceled
Springdale argues they have a “substantial and compelling need” for the information in order to fight their case, with their legal teams writing:
“The Defendants are entitled to this information and documentation due to one of the central elements of Plaintiffs’ claims being public disclosure of private information… If Joshua Duggar was placed on the sex offender registry other information such as incest, molestation of family members, or other identifying information could have led to the disclosure of the information Plaintiffs claim was private and not known to the public.”
They want the information on his alleged removal from the registry, too:
“Additionally, correspondence between Joshua Duggar and/or his agents in the possession of DHS regarding his removal from the sex offender registry could provide information as to the public knowledge of Joshua Duggar’s acts of molestation and his victims.”
Presumably they want to know exactly when he was taken off the registry. And that’s something we’re wondering as well!
We know Josh’s parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, were happy to bury this story in the first place, infamously sending him to get some sort of faith-based counseling to “fix” it. And they were pretty successful — after all, they were able to stay on a hit reality show for years without the general public finding out.
Could they also have managed to talk the DHS into removing him from the registry? According to legal experts, he was eligible to have his name cleared due to the fact he was never convicted of a crime.
We’ll have to see how the DHS responds to this latest filing to know if we’ll ever learn if and when Josh was removed from the registry. We guess we’ll know soon enough; the trial over this lawsuit is scheduled to begin in December.
[Image via Washington County Sheriff’s Office/Fox News/YouTube.]
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