Bond set for Joseph Duggar in first court appearance following child sex charges
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/Gray News/AP) — Former reality TV star Joseph Duggar had his first court appearance Tuesday morning in Florida.
The 31-year-old appeared at the Bay County Courthouse, where his bond was set at $600,000.
He was ordered to have no contact with the victim and no unsupervised contact with minors.
Duggar is charged with lewd and lascivious behavior on a child under 12 years old, according to an arrest affidavit from the Bay County Sheriff’s Office in Panama City, Florida.
Authorities have also filed charges against him and his wife, Kendra Duggar, 27, in Arkansas, the Tontitown Police Department said in a statement Friday. The charges include four counts of endangering the welfare of a minor and four counts of false imprisonment.
The charges come almost five years after Joseph Duggar’s older brother Josh was convicted of downloading child sexual abuse images. The brothers and their family starred in the TLC show “19 Kids and Counting,” which was canceled after Josh Duggar’s arrest.
Tontitown police officers contacted sheriff’s deputies in the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday, saying they had interviewed a 14-year-old girl who told them that Joseph Duggar had molested her several times during a family trip to Panama City Beach when she was 9, the affidavit said.
The child’s father confronted Joseph Duggar about the abuse last week, and the father said Joseph Duggar admitted to it, the affidavit said. Police officers in Tontitown had the father call Joseph Duggar with a detective on the line, and he again admitted to the actions.
TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting” followed the lives of devout Baptists Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar and their 19 children, all of whose names began with the letter “J.”
TLC canceled the show in 2015 following allegations that Josh Duggar had molested four of his sisters and a babysitter years earlier. Josh Duggar’s parents said he had confessed to the fondling and apologized.
Josh Duggar was sentenced in 2022 to about 12 1/2 years in prison on one count each of receiving and possessing images portraying child sexual abuse.
Joseph Duggar’s next court date is April 20.
Copyright 2026 WJHG via Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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