Josh Duggar isn’t giving up yet. His legal team has put forth a request to an acquittal following his guilty verdict of possessing and receiving child pornography and accuses a former employee of being the guilty party. “Defendant Joshua Duggar, by and through undersigned counsel, respectfully moves this Court to enter a judgment of acquittal,” according to documents obtained by HollywoodLife.
The document lists four reasons why the disgraced 19 Kids & Counting star is owed an acquittal including “failing to timely disclose exculpatory evidence,” “effectively precluded from calling a necessary witness, Caleb Williams,” “failing to turn over exhibits created by the Government’s expert witness, James Fottrell in advance of trial” and that Fottrell was “permitted to testify about geolocation” despite the fact despite being “unqualified” to do so.
As for the first point, Duggar’s legal team feels that the evidence doesn’t undeniably prove that he’s guilty of what he has been convicted of. “the evidence elicited at trial does not support a conviction on either count,” those counts being possessing and receiving the materials. Mostly, the defense feels that the evidence did not prove that Duggar was aware that the “visual depictions were of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.”
With the second reason, Duggar’s legal team brings forth a new culprit that he claims is responsible for the child pornography. The document lists Caleb Williams, an ex-employee, as “an individual who had access to the car lot and the HP desktop computer during certain relevant time periods.” They add that “law enforcement had failed to meaningfully investigate the possibility that anyone other than Duggar may have committed the crimes charged,” meaning that they feel Caleb Williams should be tried.
The defense team also alleges that evidence came forward to the prosecution that Williams had access to Duggar’s password but it was withheld from the defense team. They argue that this evidence is crucial and “deprived Duggar of the opportunity to present relevant, material favorable evidence in his favor.” Now that his defense team has presented these reasons, we’ll have to wait and see if Duggar is granted a new trial. If not, he could face up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.
