At last, disgraced former reality star Josh Duggar has been found guilty in court and awaits sentencing.
This welcome news was hard fought, and took years of work — plus 24 hours of jury deliberations.
Derick Dillard has been attending the trial of his despicable brother-in-law, and is one of the sprawling family’s most outspoken members.
With Josh’s conviction, Derick is speaking his mind.
On Thursday, December 9, the jury announced that they had reached a verdict.
Josh was found guilty of two charges, for receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
When sentenced, he could face 20 years behind bars.
Derick Dillard, as we noted before, was in attendance at the trial.
His wife, Jill Duggar Dillard, was one of Josh’s victims as a child.
For much of the Duggar family’s time in court, Derick was seated beside Anna, Josh’s wife.
Ahead of the verdict, Derick tweeted on Wednesday that he was “praying for justice this morning.”
That was the day that the defense rested and closing arguments were made.
The jury could have deliberated briefly, but ended up taking until Thursday to reach a unanimous verdict: guilty.
On Thursday, after the verdict was read to the court and announced to the world, Derick Dillard spoke to People.
“We just wanted to, among other things, see the facts for ourselves,” Derick explained of why he and Jill attended the trial.
Derick then added, seemingly unprompted: “America is the best country to get justice.”
He then shared that his plan was to return home and spend time with his wife, Jill.
She will no doubt be processing a lot of emotions in this moment.
Derick vowed to release a more formal statement at a later time.
We are sure that this statement will, at least in part, be hosted on Derick and Jill’s family blog site.
It will be interesting to see what form their statement takes.
Derick and Jill have been relatively distant from Jim Bob and his way of doing things, but they do tend to strike a balance in how they comment on things like this.
Speaking of outspoken but somewhat estranged Duggars, Amy Duggar has barely held back throughout this.
“May the jurors and Judge Brooks seek healing / counseling from all that was exposed to them,” she tweeted on Thursday.
“May the children grow up with real Godly men as father figures who will guide and protect them,” Amy asked.
“May the people who were once in disbelief,” Amy’s tweet continued, “have their eyes opened for the first time.”
That last line appears to be aimed at her cousins and perhaps at her uncle and aunt, though this may not be the case.
There are certainly Duggar fans who have been in denial and, like Anna, seemed to believe that Josh was a victim of an elaborate conspiracy.
We do not know what Derick and Jill will say, though it will likely be more subdued than Amy’s commentary.
Derick and Jill will likely approach this topic with the seriousness that it deserves, framing it within their beliefs but focusing upon the victims.
Beyond that … they’ll tell us what they want to say when they are ready.
Source: HollyWood Gossip
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