Josh Duggar is heading to trial in November following his April arrest on child pornography charges.
As the date starts to approach, more details about the case are being revealed.
The prosecution and defense have been back and forth over several issues, including calls to dismiss the case entirely. There have also been accusations of rights being violated — and now it’s claimed a plea deal was rejected.
Here’s the latest update on Josh Duggar and his ongoing legal battle.
Josh Duggar allegedly rejected plea deal ahead of arrest
According to The Sun, Josh Duggar was offered a plea deal in March 2021. Emails dated March 12 reportedly included both a plea agreement and a waiver of indictment.
If Josh had accepted the deal offered by the prosecution, he would have avoided the publicity surrounding his arrest and moved straight into whatever the sentence offered was.
According to the report, a review of “all the child pornography images discovered during the forensic search” was “declined,” and no verbal agreement was made regarding any potential sentencing.
Josh’s arrest — which saw him turn himself in to the Washington County Correctional Center with Anna Duggar reportedly by his side — indicates that his team rejected the plea deal.
The car dealership where Josh worked was raided in November 2019, which is reportedly where evidence was gathered and where the two counts of child pornography stem from.
At the time, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar denied their compound had been raided, issuing a statement saying, “We were shocked to see a news report today state that our home was raided by federal law enforcement agencies. This is not true. To the best of our knowledge, it’s also not true that any member of our family is the target of any investigation of any kind.”
Josh Duggar wants photos of his hands thrown out
Another piece to the Josh Duggar legal case reportedly involves photos of his hands taken during his booking. According to a separate report from The Sun, Josh’s legal team has filed a motion in an attempt to stop the images from being used in court.
The prosecution reportedly says the photos are important because a scar seen on Josh’s hand is claimed to match one seen in images found on a computer seized by the authorities.
Josh Duggar is scheduled to begin his trial on November 30, which could last through December 3. Initially, he was scheduled for trial in July 2021, but it was reassigned to November after his legal team requested to move it to February 2022.