{"id":358041,"date":"2026-04-01T05:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T05:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/358041\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T05:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T05:29:09","slug":"reality-tv-star-joseph-duggar-held-on-600k-bond-in-child-molestation-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/358041\/","title":{"rendered":"Reality TV star Joseph Duggar held on $600k bond in child molestation case"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Florida judge ordered reality TV star Joseph Duggar held on a US$600,000 (NZ$1 million) bond following his arrest earlier this month on child molestation charges involving a child under the age of 12.<\/p>\n

Judge Brantley Clark also barred Duggar, 31, from having unsupervised contact with any minor under 18.<\/p>\n

Duggar, who starred with his parents and siblings in TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting, was arrested March 18 in Tontitown, Arkansas, after police officers interviewed a 14-year-old girl who told them Duggar had molested her several times<\/a> during a family trip to Panama City Beach, Florida, when she was 9.<\/p>\n

The girl’s father told police in Arkansas that he confronted Duggar about the abuse<\/a>, and Duggar admitted to it, an arrest affidavit said. Police officers in Tontitown had the father call Duggar with a detective on the line, and he again admitted to the actions, according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n

Duggar waived his extradition to Florida, where he made his first appearance on the charges Tuesday morning. He remained in the Bay County Jail on Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Duggar is charged with lewd and lascivious molestation on a child under 12, and lewd and lascivious contact. Albert Sauline, a lawyer listed on court records for Duggar, did not immediately return an email seeking comment.<\/p>\n

Separately, authorities in Arkansas filed charges against Duggar and his wife, Kendra Duggar, 27, according to Tontitown police. The charges include four counts of endangering the welfare of a minor and four counts of false imprisonment. The Duggar family has not responded to requests for comment about the charges.<\/p>\n

Duggar’s older brother, Josh Duggar, was convicted in 2022<\/a> of downloading child sexual abuse videos. He was sentenced to 12 1\/2 years in prison.<\/p>\n

TLC\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

TLC cancelled the show in 2015 following allegations that Josh Duggar had molested four of his sisters and a babysitter years earlier. Josh Duggar\u2019s parents said he had confessed to the fondling and apologised.<\/p>\n

\"Where<\/p>\n

Where to get help for sexual violence. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Florida judge ordered reality TV star Joseph Duggar held on a US$600,000 (NZ$1 million) bond following his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[67,156,111,139,64,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-358041","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-crime-and-justice","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-north-america","13":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}