Court documents detail how Josh Duggar molestation allegations first came to light (2024)
A federal judge gave a detailed history of Josh Duggar's alleged molestation of his sisters on this week, recounting how Duggar's conduct was largely kept as a family secret until it inadvertently slipped out through the daughter of a family friend years later.
Judge Timothy Brooks, who also oversaw Duggar's child p*rnography trial last year, described the details in a ruling on Wednesday dismissing a lawsuit from four of Duggar's sisters. The sisters had sued a number of Arkansas officials in 2017, arguing that police improperly released documents from the molestation investigation and violated their privacy.
Though most of the facts contained in Brooks' ruling were already known to the public through media reports and police documents, Brooks' ruling summarized the disturbing, yearslong series of events in gripping detail. Brooks began by explaining that Duggar's four sisters "were sexually abused by their brother, Joshua" between March of 2002 and March of 2003, when he was 14 and 15 years old. The four sisters were between the ages of 5 and 11 when the alleged abuse occurred, Brooks said.
"Their parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, discovered the abuse but did not report it to the police or any state agency," Brooks wrote. "Instead, they decided to keep it a secret and discipline Joshua privately. Unfortunately, whatever Mr. and Mrs. Duggar tried to do to stop Joshua's behavior did not work."
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The Duggar parents sought help from their family friends, Jim and Bobye Holt, who were leaders within the Duggars' church community, Brooks continued. Both Jim and Bobye Holt testified during Duggar's child p*rnography trial in December, aiding the prosecution's efforts to portray Duggar as a habitual child predator. Bobye Holt told the court that Duggar confessed to her on multiple occasions about touching his sisters over and under their clothes.
Brooks said the Holts' daughter heard details of Duggar's alleged conduct from her parents, and wrote down those details in a letter to her favorite author. But the Holts' daughter never mailed the letter — instead, she placed it in a book on her bookshelf, and didn't move it until 2006 when she loaned the book to a "friend and fellow church member," according to Brooks.
InTouch Weekly first reported the letter in the book in 2016, after obtaining a police report. But the report said Duggars' parents refused to tell police at the time who wrote the letter and who received it.
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"From that point on, the Duggars' family secret spread by word of mouth to the other members of their close-knit church community," Brooks wrote. "It is unknown exactly how many church members learned of the abuse, but the news caused factions to form within the church, and certain church members evidently disagreed with how the matter was being handled."
Anonymous tipsters alerted Arkansas officials and Oprah Winfrey's production company
Ultimately the news reached the Arkansas Department of Human Services hotline in December of 2006. The hotline received two tips: one from an anonymous caller, and a second from a producer at Harpo Studios, Oprah Winfrey's production company.
The Duggar family had been set to appear on Winfrey's show, but an anonymous tipster emailed Harpo Studios warning that the family was "not what they seem[ed] to be," Brooks' ruling said. The same day Harpo Studios reached out to the Arkansas Department of Human Services, the Springdale Police Department opened an investigation.
Duggar, who was convicted in December of child-p*rnography possession, was never criminally charged over his alleged conduct with his sisters. Brooks also noted in his ruling that the Duggar sisters were also never removed from the family home.
The allegations against Duggar didn't go fully public until 2015, when InTouch Weekly reported on the 2006 police investigation.
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The Duggar family has since acknowledged the allegations publicly; parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar told Fox News in 2015 that their son had inappropriately touched their daughters, and two of Duggar's sisters also spoke out about the scandal, saying they had forgiven their brother and felt revictimized by the media's handling of the story.
Josh Duggar himself issued a public apology, saying he had confessed about his actions to police, received counseling, and acknowledged that he "acted inexcusably for which I am extremely sorry and deeply regret."
In Brooks' ruling dismissing the Duggar sisters' lawsuit, he sympathized with Duggar's four sisters and agreed that Arkansas officials had mishandled the investigative documents. But he said the sisters hadn't proven that the officials had intentionally violated the law.
A lawyer representing the Duggar sisters did not respond to Insider's request for comment.
A federal judge on Wednesday detailed how the allegations that Josh Duggar sexually abused his younger sisters first came to light. The judge said the allegations were kept secret for years, until a family friend inadvertently revealed them to their church community.
“According to court documents, Joshua James Duggar, 33, allegedly used the internet to download child sexual abuse material. Duggar allegedly possessed this material, some of which depicts the sexual abuse of children under the age of 12, in May 2019.”
At the bail hearing it was revealed that Josh was in possession of 265 images of naked minors, including files that depicted child sexual abuse involving toddlers as young as 18 months old and children as old as 12 years.
2, 2032. The 35-year-old is currently behind bars at a federal corrections facility in Seagoville, Texas, on child p*rnography charges. Back in December 2021, Josh was found guilty on one count receipt of child p*rnography and one count of possession of child p*rnography by a jury in Arkansas.
While Josh resides inside a federal correctional facility in Texas and Anna is back in Arkansas with the rest of the Duggar family, their marital status has not changed. The couple remains legally married, despite Josh's legal troubles and lengthy prison sentence.
According to prosecutors, a Linux partition was installed on Duggar's work computer, and the user accessed the TOR browser from here and downloaded dozens of child p*rnography images and videos—including “Daisy's Destruction”—through the file-sharing program BitTorrent.
The eldest Duggar sibling, 35, previously confessed to molesting multiple young girls — including his sisters Jill (Duggar) Dillard and Jessa (Duggar) Seewald — when he was between the ages of 12 and 15.
Jill Duggar Reveals Dad Jim Bob Made $8 Million From TLC: 'He'd Grown Rich Off the Show' Jill Dillard (née Duggar) revealed just how much money her father, Jim Bob Duggar, made off of both of their family's reality series while she and her siblings were paid next to nothing for their work.
Josh is their eldest son. The series was canceled in 2015 following revelations that Josh Duggar had molested four of his sisters and a babysitter when he was a young teen. At that time, he admitted to a p*rn addiction and cheating on his wife, and apologized.
Many of Jana's 18 siblings have gone through the process of courting and getting married, as seen on the Duggar family's now-defunct TLC shows, 19 Kids and Counting and Counting On. Despite being the second oldest child, though, Jana has remained single.
Josh was disciplined at home following an admission in July 2002 that he had molested one of his sisters. The confession was not reported to police. In March 2003, the parents learned of additional incidents and victims, and Jim Bob brought the issue to their church elders.
Several Duggar children have spoken against their religious upbringing and left the IBLP. On 19 Kids and Counting, the lives of the Duggar children gave the public a view into the world of IBLP followers.
She has been working at PEOPLE since 2022. Her work has previously been published in Healthline, SheKnows and more. Jessa (Duggar) Seewald and her husband, Ben Seewald, are creating memories with their five children — Spurgeon, Henry, Ivy, Fern and George.
What Is Anna Duggar's Net Worth? The 19 Kids and Counting alum is worth an estimated $60,000, according to Exact Net Worth. As a stay-at-home mom, who shares seven kids with her husband, she likely earned most of that money on television.
In May, a federal agent testified that at least 65 images of child p*rn were reportedly found on Duggar's computer. On Thursday, the jury was shown several of those disturbing videos and images, which were allegedly downloaded by Duggar at his now-shuttered used car dealership over the course of three days in May 2019.
Jana Duggar, the sister of former reality television star Josh Duggar who was recently convicted in a separate criminal case, has been charged with a misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of a child, Arkansas court records showed Friday. Jana Duggar, 31, pleaded not guilty through an attorney on Sept.
Josh's parents have remained supportive of their son after he pleaded not guilty to receiving and possessing child p*rnography in April 2021. The Duggar patriarch and matriarch, however, have also vowed to trust the legal system.
According to online reports, Anna still lives on the Duggar family compound in Tontitown, Arkansas, with her seven children. According to In Touch, Anna planned to move to Texas to be closer to Josh as he served his prison sentence at the Federal Correctional Institute (FCI) in Seagoville, Texas but changed her mind.
Introduction: My name is Kelle Weber, I am a magnificent, enchanting, fair, joyous, light, determined, joyous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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