Josh Duggar’s Legal Team Wants Evidence Thrown Out Of His Child Porn Case
“If the hand doesn’t fit, you must acquit!” Or… something like that? 33-year-old Josh Duggar was arrested back in April for allegedly having over 200 files of child porn on his computers. A federal agent called the images the “top five of the worst of the worst that I’ve ever had to examine.” Josh molested his sisters, so the claims that he’s a child porn-watching piece of pedophile trash are the opposite of far-fetched. But Josh is fighting the charges and wants a picture of a scar on his hands thrown out of the case.
Last month, Josh’s attorneys filed a motion claiming the prosecution is withholding evidence, but the prosecution denied it and said the defense is going on a “fishing expedition” to find evidence irrelevant to the case or that doesn’t exist at all. Josh’s team also tried to get the case dismissed over technicalities and said that the investigators failed to “preserve potentially exculpatory evidence.” But it seems the defense has changed their mind and now there’s too much evidence because they want pictures of Josh’s hands thrown out.
When Josh was arrested, the authorities took pictures of his hands, which show a scar. According to legal filings from the prosecution, the scar on Josh’s hand links him to “images recovered from [his] electronic devices” that were seized during search warrants served in the case.
!!EXCLUSIVE!! The former TLC star is accused of downloading a ton of child pornography.https://t.co/aSJnxHLqBb
— Radar Online (@radar_online) September 13, 2021
People reports that Josh’s legal team believes that the pictures are not admissible because they violate his constitutional rights since authorities didn’t get a warrant before taking them.
In a motion filed on Sept. 10, [the defense] asks the court to suppress photographs that were taken of his hands in jail after he was arrested on charges of receiving and possessing child sex abuse material in April.
The motion claims that the taking of the photos, which show a scar on one of Duggar’s hands, were a violation of his Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights and says that law enforcement officials should have obtained a warrant before taking them.
“What is particularly egregious about [Homeland Security’s] conduct in this capacity is that Duggar’s body parts were manipulated and he was required to pose for the photographs,” the motion states. “By any measure, this constitutes a search and an “intrusion on [his] personal rights”—all without his counsel present—in violation of his Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment rights.”
The prosecution shat on the claims of Josh’s lawyers, saying “the defendant is incorrect on all counts.”
It goes on to dispute each of the points in the defense’s motion, noting that the photographs do not “constitute an unreasonable or warrantless search of the defendant” because his hands were “in plain view and clearly visible.”
Prosecutors add that Duggar also “voluntarily consented” to having the photos taken.
The response also says that “the display of a defendant’s physical characteristics,” such as a photograph, do not fall under the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. As for the alleged Sixth Amendment violation — Duggar’s right to counsel — prosecutors say that that right only applies to “critical stages of criminal proceedings,” under which taking photographs does not fall.
A hearing has been set for October 4 to decide whether or not the pictures will be allowed as evidence.
If Josh’s lawyers are successful in getting the pictures of his child-touching paws thrown out, prosecutors still have a pretty good case. I mean, they just have to tell the court, “Our proof that Josh Duggar is a pedophile who loves child porn is the fact that he’s Josh Duggar.”
Pic: Instagram