A new hearing has been scheduled in the Florida case against reality TV star Joseph Duggar, who is accused of child sex crimes. Duggar, 31, is charged with lewd and lascivious conduct by a person 18 or older, and $500,000 for the lewd and lascivious molestation of a victim younger than 12 (which is considered a “life felony” in Florida).
He was booked into Bay County, Florida, Jail on March 31 and released later that day after his initial court appearance on a $600,000 bond. Before Monday’s hearing, Prosecutor Joao Paulo Ferreira was assigned to Duggar’s case to represent the State of Florida.
What happened in Monday’s hearing?
Duggar did not appear in court, and his attorney, Albert Sauline, appeared virtually. Judge Brantley Clark set a pretrial hearing for July 14 at 9 a.m. in the Bay County Circuit Court.
Clark said Duggar’s motion to amend the no-contact order regarding unsupervised contact with minors, so he can see his own children, will be heard during the pretrial hearing.
A not guilty plea was also formally entered on Monday. Duggar entered a written plea on March 29, two days before his initial court appearance in Florida.
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.
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. Both have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to appear in court on August 10.
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.
