Josh Duggar apologizes amid molestation allegations: ‘I acted inexcusably’

[Liberal_in_LA]

In the wake of a tabloid report alleging that he molested several underage girls while he was a teenager, reality-television star Josh Duggar said Thursday that he “acted inexcusably” and was “deeply sorry” for what he called “my wrongdoing.”

The 27-year-old Duggar, a member of the family that stars on TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting,” also resigned his post with the Family Research Council.

In a statement posted on Facebook, Duggar said:

Twelve years ago, as a young teenager, I acted inexcusably for which I am extremely sorry and deeply regret. I hurt others, including my family and close friends. I confessed this to my parents who took several steps to help me address the situation. We spoke with the authorities where I confessed my wrongdoing, and my parents arranged for me and those affected by my actions to receive counseling. I understood that if I continued down this wrong road that I would end up ruining my life.

On Thursday, In Touch Weekly published a partially redacted police report from the Springdale Police Department in Arkansas that, the tabloid said, contained details of the allegations against Duggar. The report redacted the name of the suspect and the alleged victims, all juveniles, but listed Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar as relatives.

Josh Duggar is the oldest child in the family that stars in the popular TLC show, “19 Kids and Counting.” Duggar, his wife Anna and their three children live in Washington, where Duggar worked as executive director of FRC Action, the non-profit lobbying arm of the Family Research Council.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/05/21/josh-duggar-apologizes-resigns-from-family-research-council-amid-molestation-allegations/

Other bombshells in the police report are: Josh Duggar was investigated for multiple sex offenses — including forcible fondling — against five minors. Some of the alleged offenses investigated were felonies. Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar were interview by the Springdale Police department on Dec. 12, 2006. The report says that James told police he was alerted in March, 2002 by a female minor that Josh — who turned 14-years-old that month — had been touching her breasts and genitals while she slept. This allegedly happened on multiple occasions. In 2006, Jim Bob told police that in July, 2002 Josh admitted to fondling a minor’s breasts while she slept. “James said that they disciplined (redacted, Josh) after this incident.” The family did not alert authorities

http://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/bombshell-duggar-police-report-jim-bob-duggar-didn-t-report-son-josh-s-alleged-sex-offenses-for-more-than-a-year-58906

[Texasgal]

1. UGH!

Nine victims...."and counting" .

http://imgur.com/a/zqPMi#0

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. and just 10 years later he has 3 kids of his own?

[Texasgal]

5. I'm sure they all prayed about it.

I am disgusted by this.

[Liberal_in_LA]

10. if many of the victims are his sisters there is a whole lot of hurt in that family. I hope they got

Treatment

[Beaverhausen]

39. 4 of them are his sisters

[SummerSnow]

44. They won't get treatment. They will just pray and it's a done deal

[IVoteDFL]

2. I'm surprised

Oh wait, no I'm not. Most sexual deviants that I've been exposed to are repressed religious types.

[NYC_SKP]

4. Resigned his post with the Family Research Council? I would think a promotion would come of this.

I'll bet he will still hang tight with them.

[zappaman]

6. Fuck that guy.

"Inexcusably"?

[Laffy Kat]

7. Why is he not in jail?

WTF,

[procon]

25. That, and is he on the sex offenders list? nt

[Kalidurga]

8. The parents knew and failed to report their son being a rapist

They should be charged and arrested for that.

[hifiguy]

9. An "apology" doesn't feed the bulldog, Slappy.

A long stretch in prison, on the other hand......

[cwydro]

11. I know nothing about the Duggars except what I read here.

This is a very sad story.

I find it interesting that DUers who want to excuse much older teens vis a vis "the brain is not developed until 25", which I've heard said about Tsarnaev, Michael Brown, et. al. - but this kid was 14 years old and we're ready to lynch him.

DU hypocrisy is something that one can always count on.

This is sad on so many levels.

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. patriarchal family - females are to be lead, males lead

[cwydro]

16. I understand that they are lowlifes.

I just cannot understand shaming a person for what they did at 14.

Normally, most progressives would agree. But since this is a family DU hates, we get to shame the guy for what he did at an extremely young age. It makes us all feel so superior I suppose.

Sadly, this is not an unusual thing. I've had several close friends who experienced similar horror at the hands of their brothers. This does not happen only in conservative families...and if you think it does, you are very sadly mistaken.

This is not for the public to comment on.

DU is better than this nastiness.

[Liberal_in_LA]

24. the parents and the son are active politically

[StevieM]

32. Don't forget that there was another victim outside the family. A cop who was friends with Jim Bob

covered it up until the statute of limitations had expired.

[historylovr]

42. They're a public family, holding themselves up as the morally superior ones.

And now it all comes out. The oldest son did horrible things to his younger sisters and another girl. He did it while they slept. Secretively. Like he knew it was wrong, even. The family covered it up until the statute of limitations had expired. He should be shamed. Everyone who participated in the cover up should be shamed. He was protected. The girls were not.

It is an awful situation, as you say. It can happen in any family. But most families don't put themselves in everyone's faces and hold themselves up as arbiters of right and wrong. Oh, how perfect they are. What a great example for everyone. And now, we shouldn't comment? Maybe you're right. Maybe we shouldn't, if it spares the girls embarrassment and flashbacks of their older brother molesting them. As for Josh Duggar? I don't give a damn about how he feels.

[polly7]

14. Normally I would agree,

regarding someone so young being judged so harshly because they are not mature - but he should have gotten intensive help, and certainly not been allowed near his sisters for a long, long time.

He's been vocally anti-gay as executive director of Family Research Council Action, and his mother placed a robocall asking voters to oppose a bill that was meant to protect transgender residents of Fayetteville, Arkansas. That, as well as playing the good, moral family they appear on their reality show makes people angry at the hypocrisy.

My anger is mainly for what those little girls went through - although I read everyone involved had received counseling, I doubt they got the kind that taught them they were worth being protected from their own brother - probably just 'everyone makes mistakes, forgive your brother and leave it to God' or some such thing. I don't understand why they even allowed him to be around their daughters afterwards when the only 'treatment' he got was from a family friend - working to help build a house or something. Those girls are going to have problems trying to reconcile this with self-worth when they're freed from that home and will probably have very conflicted feelings towards him and their parents. It's going to be hard for them, imo.

[cwydro]

17. And now his children will have to deal with it too.

Again, very sad.

[polly7]

20. Yes, it is sad all around. :(. nt.

[cwydro]

21. And the sisters (who it seems were the victims)

will now be victimized all over again.

God, this really makes me sick.

[polly7]

30. That's true. I just hope they realize that none of it is their fault and can get through this

without blaming themselves, like most survivors of sexual assault usually end up doing without some good counseling. You're right, it's not fair to them at all.

[cwydro]

33. I agree.

I feel very sad for them.

[MADem]

34. Did the SISTERS get any REAL help, I wonder? Board certified help?

Or did they get "STFU and FORGIVE, or ELSE" type help?

And do his kids have bedroom doors they can lock, to keep his pervy ass out?

The show should be cancelled. NOW.

[polly7]

35. I don't know.

[MADem]

36. That entire franchise needs to feel the Finger of Shame pointed at them from all directions.

And that includes the station that airs that shitty show.

The victims? They deserve treatment and justice. Doubt they'll get it, and that's just messed up.

[polly7]

38. Completely agree! Those girls' welfare should have been the focus when it happened,

and for their own parents and the station to carry on as though what happened to them was no biggie is really sick.

[craigmatic]

15. He's still not getting the vehemence Cosby got on here so to me they're actually letting

him off light and these are kids he did this to.

[cwydro]

19. True.

But he was a kid at that time also.

As I said in an earlier post, I know more than a few women who experienced this same thing.

They would be horrified for it to go public so many years later. This is just so wrong for the girls (now women) that he victimized.

Let the tabloids have a field day if they want. But DU should be better than this.

[craigmatic]

26. I want to see somebody say they want him arrested but nobody seems willing to go that far so again

I say they let him off light.

[MADem]

37. I think he should have been arrested when the situation first came to light.

He should have gone to Juvvie and done some serious time while getting mental health help.

And his victims should have gotten treatment too--and door locks for their rooms.

[Marrah_G]

41. I think it's only hypocritical if the same people are excusing one and not the other

I'm not sure that is the case.

I think the really big issue here is the parents reaction and actions taken after they knew. At least one more girl was touched after they knew.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

49. Very good point n/t

[KitSileya]

55. I think that anyone who reads that apology intuits that he isn't truly remorseful

They may not know why, but they feel that there is something hinky about it, and therefore they're so unlikely to be compassionate.

Know what sets off our spidey senses? He talks about how his life would have been ruined if he continued on the path he was on. Not a word about how he ruined the lives of his victims. He's 14 no longer, so he should definitely have learned his lesson. When you apologize for hurting others, you don't mention the consequences to yourself, you focus on your contrition and acknowledgement of how you've hurt your victims.

[malaise]

12. TLC and Family Research Council will be apologizing

shortly

[misterhighwasted]

18. And Jimbob & Transgender hatin Michele had the damn nerve all these years ..

..to preach loudly & push legislation against the "faults" of others.
Reality TV should show the many juveniles locked up for sexual experimentation, and forever labelled sex offenders.
Too bad they weren't 'KKKristians"
This makes me wanna barf.

The difference in this case is that John Dugger diddled his own sisters. And TV cameras continued to roll and nothing more was said nor done about young Josh.
This makes the entire Dugger show a lie.
Preaching the faults of others in the name of Jesus while hiding their own faults while bankrolling for Jesus, is blasphemy.

They need to start walking that walk like they preach to others to do.
Enjoy your fortune you sick bigoted hypocrites.

[StevieM]

31. That still doesn't speak to the actions of Jim Bob Duggar. He covered it up and got a friend

on the police force to sweep it under the rug until the statute of limitations had expired. And the sisters weren't the only victims, there was one more.

[seabeyond]

40. ya. you know, i didnt read the paragraph in between the two links. i am going to delete my post

thanks for making me do a closer read

[arcane1]

53. He got a child-porn-loving friend on the police force to cover it up.

I'm having a hard time believing that's a coincidence, that he just so happened to be a pedophile.

[StevieM]

54. Not at all an unreasonable conclusion on your part. A more honorable police officer would

have done their job and begun a thorough investigation.

[Warren DeMontague]

23. Ah yes, the good ol' Family Research Council.

Working to save the rest of us from gay marriage and pictures of consenting adults fucking on the internet.

http://www.frc.org/pornography

[hifiguy]

27. The hypocrisy is so thick you couldn't cut it

with a chainsaw. Business as usual for the reichwingers.

[Warren DeMontague]

28. and the duggars are apparently transphobic, too.

Another ideological position that is noxious as fuck no matter who it comes from.

[hifiguy]

29. That whole family is a perfecta of awfulness

rivaling the Sparklemoose clan.

[Aerows]

43. Barstool Palin

and Caribou Barbie could give them a run for their money, for certain.

[Joe the Revelator]

45. Acting "inexcusably" is getting drunk and popping off at the mouth...

....not molesting your sisters.

[Jamastiene]

46. Am I the only one having trouble understanding

exactly what was "redacted" in this part?

“James said that they disciplined (redacted, Josh) after this incident.” The family did not alert authorities...

<snip>

Is redacted the name of another person involved, the victim or what?

My main problem is that they let it continue even after knowing. It was their responsibility to protect those girls from harm and they did not do it.

Some people can complain that he was "only" 14 years old, but the adults in this case, were adults, and should have done the right thing. They did not. Others were molested by him because of their inaction. They enabled him.

Yet, these are the same people who call gay people an abomination. I tend to think child molestation is an abomination. I guess we just have different religious beliefs, then. Damn shame that people like them can hide behind their religious beliefs and do any damn thing they damn well please.

[StevieM]

47. It means that the names were redacted in the police report but the news outlet

confirmed that it was Josh Duggar being referred to.

[Jamastiene]

50. I was wondering, because the way they had redacted with the comma

then his name made me wonder who else got punished. It looked like someone else's name was redacted but not his.

[BrotherIvan]

48. I didn't even know about this story

Full disclosure that I am disgusted by this celebration of irresponsible over-breeding and cultism.

But here is some info I found when I looked it up.

Jim Bob told police in 2006 that when Josh returned home in 2003, Jim Bob, accompanied by some of his church elders, took Josh to Arkansas State Trooper, Jim Hutchens. Jim Bob knew Hutchens personally. Hutchens did not take any official action and instead gave Josh a “very stern talk.”

According to inTouch, Hutchens is now currently serving 56 years in prison for child pornography and never charged Josh Duggar.

Seriously, WTF is going on here? When will people get a clue that these people are messed up and their ideas are harmful? Is there anyway that people will realize that they are all hypocrites and charlatans? Damn, America, you're stupid.

[Renew Deal]

51. That last line is news to me

I didn't know that either.

[arcane1]

52. "Jim Bob knew Hutchens personally."

Maybe too personally, and that's why he was chosen

[BrotherIvan]

61. People are commenting that they think old Jim Bob might be the originator of this behavior

I have not watched one minute of the show, so I can't be sure, but yes the fact that he took him to a child porn lover is HIGHLY suspect. There is lots of talk that he seems pervy or strange on the show. I really wonder if there is more to the story. They let Josh fall on his sword pretty damn fast. There is too much covering up and strange coincidence. I'll bet if they keep digging, they might find more abuse. And that fucker should be put in jail. Apparently his wife wrote an article that she never says no to sex and they only time they're not fucking like bunnies is 40 days after she gives birth to a boy and 80 days after birthing an unclean (slave) girl. So you can bet there's more there. And how did they get the girls to keep quiet? They surely blamed them for being lustful harlots who at age 6 tempted their brother to sin. The more I think about it, the more violent thoughts go through my head, so I better stop. A mother and father who don't protect their children from a rapist? OH HELL NO.

[KitSileya]

57. Arkansas needs a change in laws

They need to change the statute of limitation on these crimes. If they are adamant on keeping the three-year limit, it should be three years after the victim reaches their age of majority, and if it turns out that the victim told a mandatory reporter (teacher, church elder) within the statute of limitations, but the mandatory reporter didn't do their duty, the statute of limitation should not count.

[BrotherIvan]

60. Absolutely and I thought mandatory reporters HAD TO REPORT

As a teacher and as the child of a teacher, that was very well known. You MUST report even if there is a hint of suspicion. You are legally obligated to report and I'm not sure how it goes by state, but you will definitely lose your job. This town must be at the mercy of this cult and the "elders" who like the Catholic Church just want to sweep these horrific crimes under the rug to keep the money flowing and their false appearance of morality intact. I have NO IDEA how they sleep at night or, as people who supposedly believe in hell, don't melt through the floor in fear of what's waiting for them. They are monsters!

[KitSileya]

62. Considering the cop who was told is currently serving 56 years for child pornography

it's no wonder he swept it under the rug, but it is especially galling that victims lose the chance to have their perpetrator face justice because people don't do their duty.

[lpbk2713]

56. The family lawyer gave him a crash course in damage control.

And he's sharing part of what he learned.

[Sheepshank]

58. Duggars fail to alert the PROPER authorities because those with a penis are important.

Those with vagina's not so much. It's a pattern of mysoginy for almost all persons so fully immersed in religiousosity

[Rex]

59. I don't see any apology to his victims, am I just missing it?