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Like many of her relatives, Amy Duggar King has been deeply affected by Joseph Duggar’s criminal cases.
During a recent interview, she shared that she has actually spoken to Joseph’s alleged victim.
Amy says that she offered encouragement and praise to the girl, who was only 9 for the series of 2020 incidents.
She also expressed dismay that Joseph could confess but then take it back and force this girl to endure his trial.
‘You are such a strong person’
During her recent interview on The Sarah Fraser Show, Amy revealed that she has spoken with the girl at the center of Joseph’s criminal case in Florida.
In 2020, Joseph went on a family vacation. Traveling between states to vacation during the first month of a deadly pandemic is, sadly, the least horrific detail of this story.
The unnamed accuser, who is now in her early teens, was only 9 years old when she says that Joseph repeatedly molested her during the trip.
It was only earlier this year, it seems, when she told her family. Her father called Joseph, who reportedly confessed twice to the despicable crime — though he has since pleaded not guilty in court.
“I just gave her hope. I said, ‘This doesn’t have to destroy you. It really truly doesn’t,’” Amy reported of having spoken with the girl. “I told her that if she ever just needed a safe place to talk, that I’m here.”
According to Amy, she also praised the girl’s strength for coming forward.
“You speaking out and you being so honest and vulnerable,” she correctly assessed.
Amy added that “knowing the backlash and knowing the people that would turn their backs on you and not believe you, you are such a strong person.”
Admittedly, we’re unclear on why Amy and the girl spoke. It seems unlikely that any courtroom wants to hear about a relative of the defendant speaking to the victim ahead of trial.
However, she’s right when she says that coming forward takes tremendous courage. Particularly if, as many suspect, the girl is from a similarly insular, fundamentalist social circle where girls are second-class at best, and where consent is not really taught or understood.
‘I don’t understand …’
Like many, Amy expressed dismay at how Joseph reportedly confessed more than once to the crimes but then entered a plea of not guilty when it came to his arraignment.
“I don’t understand how you can admit to it and say you did it, and then backtrack and change it,” she expressed.
Amy continued: “And be like, ‘Well, I might have said that, but I didn’t mean that.’”
Obviously, many confessions are coerced out of people, some of whom may lack legal representation and may have been subjected to sleep deprivation.
Joseph reportedly first confessed to the child’s father and then, over the phone, to police. That’s not quite the same scenario as someone kept up all night and then at risk of losing their job if they show up late to work the next day, believing that they can leave an interrogation room if they just sign a false confession.
Some on social media have speculated that perhaps the child and her family are known to the broader Duggar family, and not only to Joseph.
If so, that might explain why Amy was allowed to speak with her. Were the Duggars unknown to the family except for Joseph, that could still happen, but would seem less likely.
As for the “not guilty” plea … one can only assume that either the reality of losing everything set in, or Joseph simply spoke with an attorney who (in all fairness, doing their job) told him the realities of prison.
Without knowing more, it’s hard to say whether his previous confessions can be effectively used against Joseph in court.
It seems likely that any defense attorney would move to preclude the prosecution from even mentioning them, let alone entering any recordings into evidence, playing them for the jury, or bringing testimony about the confessions from those who heard them.
It is just a shame that this girl will likely have to testify and even face cross-examination in court.
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