(AP) — A federal appeals court on Monday upheld Josh Duggar’s conviction for downloading child sexual abuse images, rejecting the former reality television star’s argument that a judge should have suppressed statements he made to investigators during the search that found the images.
Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the appeal by Duggar, whose large family was the focus of TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting.”
Duggar was convicted in 2021 and is serving a 12 1/2-year prison sentence.
Federal authorities investigated Duggar after Little Rock police detective found child sexual abuse material was being shared by a computer traced to Duggar.
Investigators testified that images depicting the sexual abuse of children, including toddlers, were downloaded in 2019 onto a computer at a car dealership Duggar owned.
Duggar’s attorneys did not ask the former employee to testify after the judge ruled they could not mention the prior conviction.
Duggar then apologized publicly for unspecified behavior and resigned as a lobbyist for the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group. »