Entertainment

Josh Duggar Loses Court Appeal Over Child Molestation Case

EntertainmentPublished Apr 12, 2020
By Devan McGuinness
featured-img-of-post-224729Getty Images

The Duggar family was as wholesome as they come. That was until the news broke about Josh, the eldest son of Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar. His molestation case changed the view of the family and changed their narrative from this have-it-all-together family to one that covered up something that impacted the girls in the family. Josh Duggar has been out of the spotlight since, but his court troubles stemming from the ordeal aren't over yet.

Nearly five years after the case hit the media, resulting in the end of their hit reality show 19 Kids and Counting, Josh is still fighting in court.

In 2015, legal documents revealed Josh had molested four of his younger sisters and another underage family friend when he was a teenager. Almost five years later, Josh is still waging a legal battle related to the release of the documents.

When the initial documents were released, Josh filed a lawsuit against the Arkansas city and county officials connected to the release of information.

The lawsuit challenged the release of police records related to the earlier molestation of his sisters when they were young. In 2017, Josh hired lawyers to file the suit in the U.S. District Court, claiming his privacy was invaded and his right to due process was violated when the old records were made public.

Josh claimed officials released the documents from 2006 to In Touch Weekly after the magazine had filed a state request through the Freedom of Information Act about 10 years after the molestation investigation took place, and well before the family was famous.

In the lawsuit filed in 2017 in U.S. District Court, Josh asked for money and a jury trial.

Josh sought $75,000 in damages, legal fees, and a jury trial through his filing. With the latest update on this years-long case, it doesn’t sound like Josh is going to see any of this money or see the city and county officials take any blame for what resulted when the information was released.

In 2018, the judge dismissed Josh’s case, but Josh and his lawyers appealed the decision, and now that court has made a ruling.

According to USA Today, the Arkansas Court of Appeals upheld the lower court’s decision to dismiss most of the lawsuit Josh filed against city and county. On April 8, the appeals court agreed with the earlier dismissal of the case, which alleged Washington County and Springdale officials invaded his privacy and said the investigation records from 2006 should have been kept sealed.

The court ruled that Josh is still able to refile a civil rights claim if he wants to continue, but he won’t see any money from damages.

During the appeal, the judge stated Josh and his legal team failed to show how he suffered damages. The court also questioned why he should have expected privacy since he and his family starred in a top-rated reality show where “a certain level of celebrity locally, nationally and internationally was attributable to each and every member of the immediate family.”

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