Joseph Duggar Was Charged With Crimes He Committed Against A Child In 2020

Sadly, people have been following the criminal exploits of the Duggar family for decades. I had to go through our Duggar Family archives to really remind myself of when the wheels completely came off this despicable family of Evangelical-cult hypocrites and predators. Back in 2015, we learned that Josh Duggar, the eldest son of Jim-Bob and Michelle Duggar, had molested his sisters when he was a teenager, and he’d also been cheating on his wife for years. Josh wasn’t prosecuted for his crimes against women and girls in the 2010s. Then, in 2021, the authorities raided Josh’s home and business and found a stash of child sexual abuse material. In 2022, Josh was convicted and sentenced to nearly 13 years in federal prison. He’s tried to appeal, but it’s gone nowhere, so he’s still in prison.

Look at the timeline of the raid on Josh’s home and business again – 2021. As it turns out, the year beforehand, one of Josh’s younger brothers molested a child in Florida. Joseph Duggar, who is currently 31 years old, was charged this week for crimes he committed against a child in 2020.

Former 19 Kids and Counting star Joseph Duggar is facing charges after allegedly molesting a 9-year-old girl while vacationing in 2020.

Joseph, 31, was charged with lewd and lascivious molestation of a victim less than 12 years old and lewd and lascivious behavior conducted by a person 18 years or older, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office announced on Wednesday, March 18.

The former TLC star is now awaiting extradition to Bay County to face the charges. He was booked into the Washington County, Arkansas, jail on March 18 at 3:59 p.m. local time, PEOPLE can confirm.

He was charged in connection with a child sexual abuse case involving a then-9-year-old girl who was on vacation with her family in Panama City Beach, Fla., in 2020.

The alleged sexual abuse occurred when Joseph allegedly asked the victim to sit on his lap. “As the vacation continued, he also asked her to sit next to him on a couch and covered them with a blanket. During this time, Duggar manipulated the victim’s underwear and grazed her genitals. Duggar would also continue to rub his hands on her thighs,” Bay County Sheriff’s Office said.

“The victim stated Duggar eventually apologized for his actions and the incidents stopped after the apology,” Bay County Sheriff’s Office said.

The arrest was a result of the victim, now 14, participating in a forensic interview regarding a report of past sexual abuse. The victim’s father confronted Duggar about the incidents and Joseph “allegedly admitted his actions to the father and Tontitown detectives.”

PEOPLE reached out to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office and a representative for the Duggar family. PEOPLE confirms that Duggar is in police custody, but an official extradition timeline has not been released.

[From People]

I don’t exactly understand what “participating in a forensic interview regarding a report of past sexual abuse” means – does it mean that the victim (or the victim’s parents) reported Joseph’s behavior in real time, in 2020, and it’s taken this long for a forensic interview to be conducted? I guess my question is, why has there been a five-year-plus delay on bringing charges against Joseph? And when exactly did Joseph apologize to his victim’s father? Update: Per NBC News, nothing was reported to the authorities in 2020, when it happened: “Tontitown police said in statement that they received a report of a sexual abuse earlier Wednesday and reported it to the Bay County Sheriff’s Department, as the alleged incident had occurred there. The sheriff’s office said the girl’s father confronted Duggar about the alleged abuse on Tuesday. ‘Duggar admitted his actions to the victim’s father and to Tontitown Detectives,’ the office said.”

People Magazine also noted something odd about Joseph’s social media. Like all Duggars, once they get married, the Duggar and their spouse start their own stand-alone Instagram account. They use those accounts to promote their right-wing cult trad-life and all of their babies. Joseph and his wife Kendra maintained and posted to their Instagram account up until November 2021, about one year after Joseph abused a child. They stopped posting then, but the account is still active and people can still comment on their posts. Why did they stop posting in 2021?

And of course there are larger questions about and for the Duggar family. This is now the second child of Jim-Bob and Michelle to harm children.

Photos courtesy of Joseph Duggar’s Instagram.