It’s been a few weeks since Josh Duggar was arrested by federal agents in Arkansas and was charged with one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. Meanwhile, it’s not the only ongoing legal issue the Duggars are involved in. In fact, there’s a second court case tied to Josh Duggar that his sisters are currently embroiled in, though theirs has to do with the molestation report that came out a few years back.
Following the release of the report in 2015, four of the Duggar sisters, Jessa Duggar Seewald, Jill Duggar Dillard, Jinger Duggar Vuolo, and Joy-Anna Duggar Forsyth, filed a lawsuit in Fayetteville, Arkansas alleging that reports they had made as children about molestation related to Josh Duggar were supposed to be protected and not released to the public. Two years later, six of the defendants were removed from the lawsuit, leaving the current defendants on the case which include the City of Springdale, Washington County, Kathy O’Kelley, Rick Hoyt, Steve Zega, and Ernest Cate.
Though the lawsuit was filed four years ago, it is coming to the forefront again because a new trial date has been set. Originally expected to head to court in September of 2021, the Duggar sisters’ molestation case will now go to trial on December 9, 2021. According to KSN, the defendants previously filed paperwork asking to dismiss the suit with and without prejudice. Those claims were dismissed and the case will be moving forward.
After the news broke in 2015, a slew of things happened. Advertisers dropped 19 Kids and Counting which led to its cancellation and a pivot to a new series Counting On, which didn’t feature Josh Duggar. Jessa Seewald and Jill Dillard also ultimately spoke to Megyn Kelly about what happened on an episode of The Kelly File. Jessa memorably spoke about how she wasn’t justifying Josh’s actions noting he “made some bad choices.” Jill said she was sleeping and was “sad” and “shocked” to find out what had happened, but that for "truth's sake" they "wanted to set the record straight."
Josh Duggar has also been fighting in the court system related to the molestation reveal, arguing similarly that the records were from when he was a juvenile and came out only after a Freedom of Information Act request. That police report was published by In Touch in 2015 based on reports that had been taken by police during an investigation in 2006 alleging that Duggar had molested five individuals, including members of his own family. The reports had been taken when Josh Duggar was a teenager and had younger sisters in his household. In 2020, however, the Duggar son lost an appeal in 2020 related to that case.
Meanwhile, the former reality star has made headlines for plenty of other reasons in the time since. He was outed as an alleged user of the cheating website Ashley Madison and subsequently resigned from his position at the Family Research Council. He later got a job at a car dealership, which is allegedly where he was at when federal agents reportedly found child pornography on a work computer. Josh Duggar is out on bail but will face those charges in his own court trial, which is expected to happen in July.
