Officials call 911 to access Duggar home
Only days after the Josh Duggar molestation scandal broke, Arkansas human services workers called 911 after allegedly being denied entry to the home of the19 Kids and Counting reality-TV family, In Touchmagazine reports.
The magazine, which broke the original abuse story, reported the May 27 incident on Wednesday. It purportedly involves state Department of Human Services workers’ effort to check on a child at the Duggars’ Tonitown, Ark., home around 11 a.m.
In the recording, a DHS employee is heard asking police for help gaining access to the Duggars’ home.
“Well, we’re, um, Washington County DHS office and we’re out here to, uh, we have, uh, an investigation, and, um, I guess they’re, uh, not being cooperative, and we have to see the child to make sure the child is all right. So we just need police assistance or escort,” they said.
It’s not clear what was being investigated. The call was transferred and the audio ends. It’s also unclear what happened next or whether police were dispatched to the scene.
The Duggar family, in response to the original report by In Touch on May 21, acknowledged last month that Josh Duggar, now 27, had molested at least five young girls — including four of his sisters — when he was a teen.
Josh Duggar has publicly apologized for his actions and resigned from the Family Research Council in Washington, where he worked as a lobbyist for Christian causes and against gay marriage and abortion rights. .
Josh and his wife Anna have also canceled their scheduled appearance next week at the Christian music event, Alive Festival, in Mineral City, Ohio, but sister Jessa and Jill and their husbands remain on the program, according to the festival.
Josh has never been arrested or charged over the alleged incidents.
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, the parents of the Duggar family, told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly last week that their son had come to them at age 14 and confessed that he had “improperly touched” some of his sisters.
They said they got him out of the house and sent him to a non-professional Christian-based counseling program in Little Rock. Jim Bob said it was “the best decision” they made, because Josh became “closer to God” as a result. “It was a turning point in his life,” he said.
Josh asked for forgiveness from his victims, some of whom were too young to understand what was wrong, what had happened or why Josh had to leave, said Michelle Duggar.
The TLC network has pulled the reality show’s reruns from its schedule but has not indicated whether it will drop the program starring the Christian conservative family.
[“source-usatoday.com”]