Listen to this article with a free account
Joseph Garrett Duggar, who starred on the TLC reality show “19 Kids and Counting,” was arrested Wednesday after being accused of molesting a 9-year-old girl six years ago during a vacation in Florida.
The 31-year-old man is charged with lewd and lascivious behavior – assault on a victim under the age of 12 – and lewd and lascivious behavior by a person 18 years or older, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office in Florida said in a press release.
He was arrested by police in Tontitown, Arkansas, and is awaiting extradition to Bay County, which covers Panama City.
Tontitown police said in a statement that they received a report of sexual abuse earlier Wednesday and reported it to the Bay County Sheriff’s Department because the alleged incident occurred there.
In an interview, the girl, now 14, told police that Duggar allegedly touched her inappropriately multiple times during a family vacation to Panama City Beach in 2020, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office said.
The girl said Duggar repeatedly asked her to sit on his lap, the sheriff’s office said. During the vacation, Duggar also asked the girl to sit next to him on a couch and used a blanket to cover them both, the victim told police, after which he allegedly touched her genitals and rubbed his hands on her thighs.
The victim said the incidents stopped after Duggar finally apologized, according to the sheriff’s office.
The Duggar family and TLC did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday evening.
The sheriff’s office said the girl’s father confronted Duggar on Tuesday about the alleged abuse. “Duggar confessed his actions to the victim’s father and Tontitown detectives,” the office said.
Tontitown police said officers received a warrant from the Bay County Sheriff’s Office at 3 p.m. Wednesday for Duggar’s arrest.
The Duggar family rose to fame on the hit TLC show “19 Kids and Counting,” which aired for 10 seasons from 2008 to 2015 and followed the family lives of Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar and their 19 children.
The show was deleted in 2015 following revelations that eldest son Josh Duggar molested five children, including four of his sisters.
Josh Duggar was sentenced to 12 1/2 years in federal prison in 2022 for receiving and possessing images of child sexual abuse.
