Duggar Defense Falls Apart As City Attorney Says Josh Duggar’s Police Report Release Was Legal

During their interview with Megyn Kelly on Fox News, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar claimed that the release of their son’s police report was illegal, but City of Springdale City Attorney explained why the release was completely legal.
During their Fox News interview, Jim Bob Duggar claimed that Josh Duggar’s police report was illegally released, “You know, at this point our family is just trying to regroup from these attacks. When you’re in every newspaper and everything throughout the world, it’s been an unprecedented attack on our family. And it was actually — this information was released illegally, so I wonder why all this press isn’t going after the system for releasing juvenile records. That is a huge story. Now, what our son did 12 years ago, I’m sure it’s a major story to them too, but yet, hopefully, justice will be served on the ones that released juvenile records to protect other juveniles’ from their records from being released.”

Michelle Duggar said that the family’s trust was violated by the police, “What’s devastating as a mom for me is we took our children to the children safety center. We trusted them. We trusted the police department. Our children poured out their hearts. They shared everything. And then to have their trust betrayed? And for all of their information and everything they share to be turned over to a tabloid, for those things to be twisted and shared in a slanderous way, story after story, tabloid after tabloid.”
Springdale City Attorney Ernest Cate knocked down the Duggar defense, “On 5/20/15, in full compliance with Arkansas Law, the Springdale Police Department responded to a records request under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. The requested record was not sealed or expunged, and at the time the report was filed, the person listed in the report was an adult. Any names of minors included in the report, as well as pronouns, were redacted from the report by the Springdale Police Department in compliance with Arkansas law prior to release.”
The court order that the record by destroyed did not come until the following day, May 21, so this means that the release of Josh Duggar’s police report was completely legal. The Duggars claims of police misconduct don’t have a legal leg to stand on. What the police misconduct defense was designed to was to distract from the Duggars role in covering up and enabling their son’s crimes.

Because of the death of Freddie Gray and other incidents, police misconduct has become a topic that is frequently in the news. The Duggars tried to play the victim by crying police misconduct, but their accusations are nothing more than a cynical attempt to drum up sympathy and get their television show back on the air.