On Thursday, the third day of jury selection in the child pornography trial of Josh Duggar, the parents of Jill and Jessa testified under oath about their interactions with police and the family crisis department. They were then questioned by the lead counsel in the case, Todd Lerner. This was his second day on the witness stand.
The questions? Josh and Anna Duggar claimed they did not care about privacy when the Duggar family photo budget was being managed, and that they did not realize it was being used for child pornography.
Lerner did not ask if the images of naked minors were digitally altered to remove their faces or to disguise who was actually showing them to that camera.
Lerner also did not ask the parents of the young victims about the change in defense strategy: asking the lead prosecutor if they were aware that there had been digital media downloads with minors’ faces and images of nude minors, released by the molestation suspect under an alias, in a 2010 search.
They also did not ask why the key witness, a childhood friend of the Duggar family’s, has changed her statements during the investigation, first saying she “should have been nicer” in 2013, when the criminal case had previously gone to trial, and last year changing her story again and saying she “did not remember” under oath that she was shown the 2007 images as well.
One of Josh Duggar’s teenage friends — whose name is not publicly known — testified Wednesday, as he had in the second day of jury selection. On Tuesday, Foster said it was impossible to know when or if the images were taken during earlier molestation as Josh alleged, and that her testimony would be limited to 2007.
“This past July they were under criminal investigation, and we were told that the pictures could no longer be used because the statute had changed,” she said.