Joseph Duggar, a former star of the TLC reality series “19 Kids and Counting,” was arrested Wednesday on charges that he molested a 9-year-old girl during a 2020 family vacation in Panama City Beach, Florida, authorities said.
Mr. Duggar, 31, was booked into the Washington County Detention Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas, at 3:59 p.m. local time, according to jail records. The arresting agency was the Tonitown Police Department. His mugshot was subsequently released by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office Wednesday evening.
He faces two charges: 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, according to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office.
The victim, now 14, reported the alleged abuse Wednesday to police in Tontitown, Ark. Investigators determined the assault occurred in Bay County, Florida, and informed that sheriff’s office, which issued the arrest warrant, Tontitown police said.
According to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office, authorities allege Mr. Duggar initially asked the victim to sit on his lap before sexually abusing her. During the continued vacation, he allegedly asked her to sit beside him on a couch under a blanket, during which he manipulated the victim’s underwear and touched her genitals, while also rubbing her thighs. The victim told investigators that Mr. Duggar eventually apologized and that the incidents stopped after the apology.
The victim’s father confronted Mr. Duggar about the alleged abuse, and Mr. Duggar reportedly admitted his actions to both the father and Tontitown detectives, police said. The arrest followed a forensic interview with the victim.
Mr. Duggar is currently awaiting extradition to Bay County, Florida, where he is scheduled to appear in court on March 20, per jail records. No official extradition timeline has been released.
Mr. Duggar starred alongside his siblings and parents in the hit TLC series from 2008 to 2015, which chronicled the lives of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their 19 children over more than 200 episodes across 10 seasons. TLC pulled the show from the air in 2015 following allegations that the eldest Duggar child, Josh, had molested several girls as a teenager.
His arrest comes nearly four years after his older brother, Josh Duggar, was sentenced in 2022 to more than 12 years in prison for downloading child sexual abuse imagery. Josh Duggar was also accused of sexually abusing five girls, including his sisters Jill (Duggar) Dillard and Jessa (Duggar) Seewald. Several members of the Duggar family have publicly distanced themselves from their parents and Josh since his initial arrest in 2021.
It was not immediately clear whether Joseph Duggar has retained legal counsel.
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