Joseph Duggar booked in Florida, appearing in court Tuesday
by: Jordan Moeller, Kyler Swaim
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Related video: Joseph, Kendra Duggar facing combined 16 charges in Arkansas
TONTITOWN, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — Joseph Duggar has been booked in the Bay County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office and will appear in court for the first time on Tuesday.
Duggar was booked in Bay County on March 31 around 7:32 a.m., according to jail records. He has been charged with lewd and lascivious molestation of a victim younger than 12 and lewd and lascivious conduct by a person 18 or older.

The Fourteenth Judicial Circuit says that Duggar will have his first court appearance at 10 a.m. on Tuesday. He will be appearing remotely from the Bay County Jail.
His hearing will be livestreamed on the Fourteenth Judicial Circuit’s YouTube channel.
Duggar was being held in the Washington County Detention Center alongside his wife, Kendra Duggar. Kendra Duggar was released less than two hours after being booked on a $1,470 bond.
The Duggars are still facing four counts of second-degree endangering the welfare of a minor and four counts of second-degree false imprisonment out of Tontitown.
A bond has not yet been set for Joseph Duggar in Bay County.
Case background
The investigation began on March 18 when Bay County investigators were contacted by a Tontitown police detective regarding a report of past sexual abuse. The alleged victim told forensic interviewers the incidents occurred during a family vacation in Panama City Beach in 2020, when she was under 10 years old, at a rental home on Danny Drive, according to Bay County authorities.
She alleged Duggar repeatedly asked her to sit on his lap and, as the vacation continued, asked her to sit beside him on a couch beneath a blanket, during which he allegedly touched her inappropriately over and beneath her clothing on multiple occasions. Florida investigators allege the behavior stopped after Duggar apologized.
The day before investigators were contacted, the victim’s father confronted Duggar, who reportedly admitted the allegations in a phone call with a Bay County deputy and later repeated them to Tontitown detectives, according to an affidavit.
Joseph Duggar is the seventh child of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, the Arkansas couple known for the long-running TLC reality franchise, and also appeared in the spin-off series “Counting On,” which documented his courtship and marriage to Kendra Caldwell.
His arrest comes years after his older brother, Josh Duggar, was convicted in 2021 on federal child pornography charges and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.