Arkansas Police Destroy Josh Duggar's Offense Report
Arkansas police have destroyed the 2006 offense report detailing accusations of sexual misconduct against 19 Kids and Counting star Josh Duggar on a judge’s orders, according to the Associated Press. The offense report—originally obtained by inTouch Weekly—can still be read here.
Springdale police spokesman Scott Lewis told the AP that Judge Stacey Zimmerman ordered the report destroyed on Thursday. Usually, such records are kept indefinitely. “As far as the Springdale Police Department is concerned, this report doesn’t exist,” Lewis said.
The Duggars are deeply embedded in Arkansas state politics, and several Arkansas Republicans, including former Governor Mike Huckabee, have defended the family. “Those who have enjoyed revealing this long ago sins in order to discredit the Duggar family have actually revealed their own insensitive bloodthirst,” Huckabee wrote in a Facebook post published on Friday.
“There was no consideration of the fact that the victims wanted this to be left in the past,” Huckabee wrote. “Ultimately a judge had the information on file destroyed—not to protect Josh, but the innocent victims.”
Photo credit: AP Images. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.