Arkansas officials defended their release of records documenting Josh Duggar’s alleged molestation attacks on his sisters — one day after the family called it “illegal.”
The city of Springdale said it was complying with public records laws when it released the report last month, according to a statement on the city’s website.
The statement does not explicitly say the report — only identified as being released on May 20 — is the one that documented a 2006 police interview in which dad Jim Bob Duggar described how his son confessed to inappropriately touching his sisters. However, Josh Duggar publically addressed the accusations on May 21, just a day after the report was released.
Jim Bob told officers that Josh groped the breasts and genitals of his sisters and a family friend on at least seven occasions between 2002 and 2003. The then 15-year-old Josh confessed to the acts at least three times before the family sought treatment and police help, according to the 2006 report, obtained by In Touch Weekly.
The Duggars called the report’s release illegal on Wednesday during an interview with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly.
Jim Bob and Michelle claimed they were told the report was a “sealed juvenile record” that could not be released.
During the same interview, the couple defended their eldest son, writing off the incident as “bad choices.” The “19 Kids and Counting” family also revealed that sisters Jessa and Jill were among Josh’s victims.
The sisters are due to appear on a second segment Friday.
“I do want to speak up in his defense against people who are calling him a child molester or a pedophile or a rapist,” sister Jessa Seewald said in a preview to the Friday interview. “I’m like that is so overboard and a lie really, I mean people get mad at me for saying that but I can say this because I was one of the victims.”
Josh Duggar had just turned 14 the first time he confessed to fondling his sisters’ breasts and genitals, the report said.
The teen said he snuck into his sisters’ room at least four or five times and touched the girls “on the breasts and vaginal areas” as they slept, Jim Bob told police in 2006. He also touched a family friend and once groped one of his sisters as she sat on his lap and he read to her, according to the report.
The conservative family reported Josh’s serial gropings only after he completed a Christian counseling program in 2003 — more than a year after the first alleged incident. Jim Bob told police that the state trooper gave him a “stern” lecture about his behavior, but didn’t punish the teen further because he had already sought treatment.
Police re-interviewed the family in 2006 — the basis for the document in question — based on a tip from the state’s abuse hotline. A family friend found an old letter documenting the 2002 and 2003 incidents in a book and reported the attacks.
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