Duggar witness contradicts corporal’s claim

ARKANSAS
Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

By Doug Thompson
Posted: May 31, 2015

SPRINGDALE — Joshua James Duggar, now 27, gave a full and frank account of fondling his victims in his 2003 confession to an Arkansas State Police corporal, according to a witness who contradicts a recent account by the former corporal.

“I’m not saying he is a liar, but my recollection is that Joshua came clean and told everything,” the witness said. “I definitely remember telling him before we went that he needed to come clean, and I definitely remember being satisfied that he did that when it was over.”

All law enforcement officers are required by state law to report sexual abuse involving minors to the state’s child abuse hotline. Joseph Truman Hutchens, the former corporal, expressed regret for not doing so in an interview published Wednesday in In Touch magazine of Englewood Cliffs, N.J.

By the time other authorities were tipped off in 2006 about Duggar’s earlier acts, the statute of limitations had expired on any possible criminal charges. Duggar was 15 years old when the last of the acts was committed.

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