Jim Bob Knew in 2002 — And a Federal Judge Said He Lied About It

In March 2002, Jim Bob Duggar found out his son had been molesting his daughters. His first call wasn't to the police. It was to church elders.

What happened next wasn't a series of unfortunate oversights. It was a deliberate, methodical effort to keep everything inside the family and the church — where it could be managed, minimized, and buried.

The man Jim Bob tapped to serve as the bridge to law enforcement was Arkansas State Trooper Joseph Hutchens — a personal friend. Hutchens sat Josh down, gave him a talking-to, and filed exactly nothing. State law required otherwise. Hutchens is currently serving fifty-six years in federal prison on unrelated criminal charges. Make of that what you will.

Court testimony placed the start of the abuse at around the time Josh was twelve. The youngest victim was five years old.

When Jim Bob finally testified under oath at a 2021 federal pre-trial hearing, he suddenly couldn't remember much. A federal judge didn't buy it — and said so in writing, on the public record, using the words "not credible."

Josh was never charged for what happened in 2002 and 2003. His sisters never saw a prosecution for what was done to them specifically. The system didn't fail by accident.

In Part 3 of Hidden Killers' five-part Duggar series, Tony Brueski walks through the full coverup timeline — every decision, every institution, every moment where someone could have stopped it and didn't.

Part 3 of 5.

This series contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.

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