Josh Duggar's Sentencing Hearing Set For April In Child Porn Case

Josh Duggar will learn his sentence for his child porn conviction in April, officials have announced.

The Western District of Arkansas Federal Court announced on Tuesday that Duggar, 33, will be sentenced on the morning of April 5, KNWA reports. Duggar was convicted in federal court in December of one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. He faces up to 20 years behind bars for each count.

Duggar’s defense has since asked for a retrial by noting that their client's former employee — who they say is a sex offender — also had access to the computer on which child porn was discovered. The person used to work for Duggar at the “19 Kids and Counting” star’s used car lot in Springdale, Arkansas, which is where videos and photos of child porn were discovered on a desktop computer. 

During his trial, Duggar's defense had also hinted that someone else could have downloaded the child sexual abuse material, noting that no other material of that nature was found on his other personal devices.

Prosecutors, however, successfully argued that data from Duggar’s iPhone placed him at the car dealership when a secret Linux partition was installed on the computer. They said data also placed him there when the images depicting child pornography were downloaded onto the hard drive just days later, The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

Last month, the prosecution responded to the retrial request stating that “[Duggar’s] barebones argument ignores the ample proof beyond any reasonable doubt that he repeatedly downloaded and viewed this material.” Then, for 20 pages, the government explained why they found the demand for a retrial preposterous.

One of Duggar’s sisters, Jana Duggar recently received no jail time after admitting that she had endangered a child. The 31-year-old pleaded guilty on Dec. 15 to one misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of a minor in the third degree. Jana Duggar, who is single and has no children, claimed in a December Instagram story that one of the children at the Duggar property wandered out of the home alone, prompting the charges.

The address for Jana Duggar listed in the court docket for that case is the same one listed for Josh Duggar and other members of their family. Both Josh and Jana Duggar were featured on “19 Kids and Counting,” which ran on the TLC network from 2008 to 2015. The show was filmed at a home in Arkansas where multiple family members lived together.