Former TLC star Joseph Duggar charged with child sexual abuse
Former TLC star Joseph Duggar, best known for “19 Kids and Counting,” is in custody on suspicion of child molestation during a 2020 trip to Florida.
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Joseph Duggar’s arrest is the latest downfall for the once picture-perfect Duggar family.
A 31-year-old man was arrested and charged with lewd conduct. He is accused of sexually abusing a 9-year-old girl in Panama City Beach, Florida in 2020, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office announced on March 18.
Joseph Duggar, the Duggar’s seventh eldest son, appeared on TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting” with his family for seven years.
The hit series follows a family led by parents Jim Bob and Michelle and their ultra-conservative Christian lifestyle in rural Arkansas.
The show was canceled in 2015 after news broke that the eldest brother, Josh Duggar, sexually abused his four sisters and their babysitter when they were teenagers. Josh Duggar is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence for downloading and possessing child pornography in an unrelated case.
USA TODAY reached out to the Duggar family about Joseph Duggar’s arrest.
Here’s what you need to know about the Duggar family and the morass of scandal that followed their rise to TV fame.
What we know about Joseph Duggar’s arrest
The Bay County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office announced that Joseph Duggar, 31, was charged with lewd acts involving sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old girl.
The victim, who was 9 years old at the time of the incident, told police in a forensic interview that she allegedly had several encounters with Joseph Duggar during a family vacation in 2020.
In one instance, a victim claimed Duggar manipulated her underwear and sexually abused her under a blanket. He also allegedly repeatedly asked her to sit on his lap on other occasions.
According to the sheriff’s office, the victim said Duggar later apologized to the victim for his actions and that no other incidents occurred.
On March 17, the victim’s father confronted Duggar about the incident, and the reality TV star admitted his actions to police in Tontitown, Arkansas. Authorities arrested Dugger and he will be extradited to Bay County, where he will face charges.
Joseph Duggar married Kendra Caldwell Duggar in 2017 and they have three children.
The Duggar family’s troubles began with Josh Duggar’s sexual abuse scandal
The Duggar family was first exposed to scandal in May 2015, when news broke that Josh Duggar, the eldest son of the family, sexually abused his four sisters and a babysitter when they were teenagers.
In Touch published a 2006 police report detailing alleged incidents dating back to 2002 and 2003. According to a police report, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar learned of the incident after it happened, but did not initially call police.
After the second incident in 2003, Jim Bob Duggar and the elders of his church decided to enroll Josh in a four-month Christian counseling program, according to a 2006 police report.
When Josh returned home from the program, he and his father told Joseph Hutchens, then a trooper with the Arkansas State Police, about the abuse. According to the report, Hutchens spoke with Josh Duggar but took no further action. Hutchens, who is currently serving a 56-year sentence for child pornography, later claimed that her family had concealed the extent of the abuse.
Police later questioned the Duggars about the 2006 incident after receiving an anonymous tip about abuse at their home. They did not press charges because the statute of limitations had passed.
After InTouch released its 2006 report in 2015, the Duggar family, including Jim Bob, Michelle and Josh, issued a statement calling the incident a “very, very bad mistake.”
Josh Duggar said, “When I was a teenager, I committed an unforgivable act. I am very sorry and deeply regret it.”
“We pray that people look at our lives and understand that we are not a perfect family. We have challenges and struggles every day,” Jim Bob and Michelle said.
Josh Duggar admits to being ‘unfaithful’ to his wife
In August 2015, three months after his sexual abuse scandal broke, Josh Duggar found himself embroiled in new controversy after admitting that he had been “unfaithful” to his wife, Anna.
Josh Duggar had an Ashley Madison account after hackers released user data from the relationship website Ashley Madison, Gawker reported.
Josh has since released a statement admitting that he has an account on the website.
“I was the biggest hypocrite ever. While I believed in my faith and family values, for the past few years I had been secretly viewing pornography on the Internet. This secretly developed into an addiction and led me to be unfaithful to my wife,” the statement said at the time.
He continued: “In recent years, I have been hiding my own personal shortcomings while professing to be fighting immorality in our country.”
That same month, the Duggar family announced that Josh had entered rehab, but did not reveal the nature of his treatment. He left the rehabilitation facility in March 2016.
Josh and Anna were married in 2008 and have seven children.
Josh Duggar serving prison sentence for child pornography charges
In 2021, Josh Duggar was arrested and charged with possessing child pornography after images were found on his work computer.
That same year, an Arkansas jury found him guilty of one count each of receiving and possessing child pornography. U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks ruled to dismiss the possession charges.
In 2022, Duggar was sentenced to 151 months in prison and a $10,000 fine. He faced up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each count.
Prosecutors argued in pre-sentence court filings that Duggar has a “persistent, pervasive and violent sexual interest in children.” His defense attorney maintained his innocence.
After Josh’s arrest in 2021, TLC canceled the Duggar family spinoff series Counting On.
Jana Duggar was charged with child endangerment
The family’s eldest daughter, Jana Duggar, was charged in September 2021 with a misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of a child.
After the news broke in December of that year, the day after her brother Josh was convicted in a child pornography case, Jana Duggar shared the “raw facts” of the incident on Instagram.
“A few months ago, while I was babysitting, one of the children was wandering outside alone. A passerby who saw the child called the police,” she wrote on her Instagram Story at the time. “This resulted in a written citation and a follow-up investigation by the Department of Children’s Services, who concluded that this was an accident and the child was not injured.”
She said authorities recognized the incident as “an incident in which a child slipped out of the house when the child’s back was slightly turned.”
“It all happened so fast and it was scary. I am grateful to law enforcement and those who protect and serve our community,” she wrote. “I certainly wasn’t arrested, as some people might have implied. In the end, I was just mad at myself for the incident to have happened, but I’m very grateful that everything ended well. That was really the most important thing to me.”
Jana Duggar pleaded guilty. According to People magazine, she reached an out-of-court settlement in January 2022.
‘Shiny Happy People’ Doctor claims Duggar is part of a cult
In 2023, a limited four-part documentary about the Duggar family, Shiny Happy People: Secrets of the Duggar Family, was released on Amazon Prime.
The series revealed that Jim Bob and Michelle joined the Institute for Basic Life Principles (IBLP), an ultra-conservative religious organization, as a young couple. The organization advertises itself as a resource for missionary seminars and other religious support, but has been criticized by some former members as a cult.
“Shiny Happy People” featured interviews with members of the Duggar family and former members of IBLP. They claimed that the Duggars utilized forms of child abuse promoted by IBLP teachings.
Jill Duggar Dillard, one of the Duggar children featured in the docuseries, said she felt obligated to protect her brother Josh from sexual abuse allegations, even though he was one of the victims.
“I didn’t want to say it, but at the same time I’ve never said no to my family before,” Duggar Dillard said.
Duggar Dillard also claimed that she was never paid for her role on “19 Kids and Counting” or the spin-off series in which she starred. As a result, he said, he didn’t have money to cover his medical expenses and sometimes relied on food stamps.
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar spoke out against the documentary in a statement at the time.
“The recent ‘documentary’ about our family is sad because in it we see the media and malicious people hurting our loved ones,” they wrote. “Like any family, our family has experienced life’s joys and heartbreaks in a very public format. This ‘documentary’ portrays so many people in a derogatory and sensationalist way, because sadly that’s the direction entertainment is heading these days.”
Contributions: Anthony Robredo, Joy Ashford, Barbara Vandenberg, Amy Heinlein, Mary Bowerman
Melina Khan is USA TODAY’s national trends reporter. Contact her at melina.khan@usatoday.com.
