Josh Duggar to be released from prison and granted bail as he awaits trial in child porn case
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Josh Duggar, the former "19 Kids and Counting" star, will be released from jail May 6, pending a trial scheduled for July, after appearing virtually in federal court in Arkansas Wednesday for a detention hearing on charges of receiving and possessing child pornography.
After a three-hour hearing, U.S. District Judge Christy Comstock ruled that Duggar will be released to "third-party custodians" – family friends of his parents – and cannot have any contact with minor children except his own six kids and then only in the presence of their mother, Anna Duggar. (The couple is expecting a seventh child in the fall.)
But he's not going home, the judge ruled.
"I cannot in good conscience send you home," Comstock said. "There are five or six minor children in your parents' house, in your house and grandparents' house."
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The judge said he can't possess or view any pornography or erotica of any kind and he's barred from accessing the internet via any device.
Duggar will be subjected to GPS electronic monitoring and must stay in the residence of the Rebers, longtime friends of his parents, at all times except for certain activities, such as work, medical visits or meetings with his lawyers. He has to turn in his passport and can't leave any of the three counties in the Western District of Arkansas.
"We don't have enough technology to ensure compliance but you are not to possess or access any internet-capable device or ask for the passwords of the Rebers," Comstock told Duggar, who appeared from the Washington County jail where he is being held.
"You can go to Target to get a Jitterbug phone to talk to your counselor or run your business, but you have to get it approved in advance by your probation supervisor," the judge told him.
More: Josh Duggar's family reacts to '19 Kids and Counting' star's arrest on child porn charges
The ruling came after several witnesses testified about the charges against Duggar, including Special Agent Gerald Faulkner, a Homeland Security investigator assigned to federal child exploitation cases, sex trafficking, interstate trafficking of minors and child pornography cases, who said he's been involved in more than 1,000 of such cases.
Under questioning by federal prosecutors, Faulkner told the judge that investigators found evidence of a known series of child pornography on Duggar's computer at his car dealership business, some of it depicting sexual abuse of children as young as 18 months old. One series, he said, is called Daisy's Destruction.
"It ranks in the top five of the worst, worst I’ve ever had to examine," Faulkner testified.
Comstock said she was "concerned" about the nature of the charges, the number of images allegedly downloaded to Duggar's computers, the young ages of the children depicted, and the "sophistication" of the person who downloaded the images via the "dark web" and who manipulated the computers in a way aimed at hiding it.
"I keep coming back to the overriding concern about the children you live and interact with daily," the judge said, referring to the children of his many siblings, his youngest siblings and the children of his friends and other family.
She also noted that Duggar had admitted publicly in 2015, on his family's website, that he had molested several minor children, including two of his sisters, when he was a minor himself. He also acknowledged at that time that he had an addiction to pornography, although not child pornography.
"The evidence is substantial and weighs against you in my evaluation," the judge told Duggar.
But she also weighed his "deep roots" in the community, his lack of criminal conviction and the fact he did not flee once he learned of the investigation against him in November 2019 when a search warrant was served on his car dealership business.
Comstock pressed the couple with whom Duggar will be living with pending his trial to promise that should he violate any condition of his release they will first call his federal probation officer, not Duggar's parents or their church elders.
The couple also had to agree to remove several guns from their home and suspend their daughter's piano lessons for children as long as Duggar lived in their spare bedroom. Both testified they agreed to be custodians at Jim Bob Duggar's request and because they wanted to help the Duggar family.
"Are you a danger to the community? The government argues you are, your lawyer says you are not," Comstock said. "The truth is I don’t know."
"This has been a very close call," the judge said. "I've thought about it a lot. I hope you will not prove me wrong."
Duggar told the judge she would not regret her decision.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Josh Duggar granted release from jail pending trial in child porn case
