Explosive Update! Joseph Duggar Walks Free After Posting a Staggering Bond

Joseph Duggar was released from custody on Tuesday after making his first appearance before a judge in Florida.

During his brief hearing, which he attended remotely from the Bay County Jail, Joseph’s bond was set at $600,000, and by the afternoon he was no longer listed as an inmate at the facility.

He will be facing some major restrictions while out on pre-trial release regarding who he can and cannot be alone with — including his own children.

Joseph appeared in a striped prison uniform for his hearing on Tuesday morning, with his hair disheveled and beard unkempt. The hearing was held just a few hours after he was booked into custody by the Bay County Sheriff’s Office following his extradition from Arkansas.

Judge Tracy Smith set the bond for lewd and lascivious behavior conducted by an individual over the age of 18 at $100,000, then said because lewd and lascivious behavior molesting a child under the age of 12 is a “life felony” the bond would be set at $500,000. Judge Smith also informed Joseph about two conditions of his release.

The first condition was that he have no contact with the girl, now 14, who is accusing him of sexually assaulting her several times during a family trip to Panama City Beach in 2020. Then, Judge Smith told Joseph: “Sir, you are also ordered to have no unsupervised contact with any minors under the age of 18. That includes Joseph’s four young children as well as his two youngest siblings.

A copy of the order that was filed by the judge after the hearing and obtained by PEOPLE stresses this final condition. “No unsupervised contact with any minors under 18,” reads a handwritten note on the court filing. The judge did not, however, order Joseph to wear any electronic monitoring devices should he post bond, despite the fact that he lives in another state.

In a forensic interview with a detective from the Tontitown Police Department in Arkansas, the girl accusing Joseph said she was just 9-years-old when “several incidents of sexual abuse” occurred, according to a copy of the affidavit for an arrest warrant filed in the case and obtained by PEOPLE.

She told the detective that Joseph started to ask her to “sit on the couch beside [him]” and then “covered the parties with a blanket,” according to the affidavit. “Once the parties were covered, the defendant would pull the victim’s dress up and touch the victim’s thighs,” Deputy Sheriff Darrell Norris of the Bay County Sheriff’s Office wrote in the affidavit. The girl said in her interview that “during these incidents [Joseph’s] hand grazed [her] vagina” and that his “hand was outside of her underwear,” according to the affidavit. This occurred “several times” according to the accuser, who described feeling “uncomfortable” and “confused.”

Joseph “eventually approached the victim and apologized for his actions,” according to the affidavit, at which point “the incidents stopped occurring.”

He was arrested just hours after that forensic interview was conducted and admitted to his actions on a call with the girl’s father and the detective from the TPD, according to the affidavit. Joseph has now entered a written plea of not guilty to all charges, waived arraignment and is seeking a jury trial.