Josh Duggar molestation report and cover up allegation
In 2006, Jim Bob Duggar told the Arkansas State Police that his oldest son, Josh, had molested five underage girls, including family members, in the early 2000s when he was 14–15 years old. The alleged abuse involved touching their breast and genital regions on multiple occasions while they slept and in a few cases while they were awake. Jim Bob Duggar had been prompted to speak to police after producers of The Oprah Winfrey Show told authorities they had received allegations against Josh Duggar. Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar told police they had sent Josh away for several months in 2003 and that, upon his return home, Jim Bob had taken him to Arkansas State Trooper Jim Hutchens, a family acquaintance, for a "stern talk". Because of this 2003 contact with police, the three-year statute of limitations had expired by the time of the December 2006 police investigation, and Josh Duggar was not formally charged with any crime.
The public did not learn about this until 2015, when Josh Duggar's public admission of his behavior caused TLC to cancel the reality show 19 Kids and Counting. In a joint statement to People magazine following the public revelation, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar said: "Even though we would never choose to go through something so terrible, each one of our family members drew closer to God. We pray that as people watch our lives they see that we are not a perfect family. We have challenges and struggles every day."
TLC rebooted the Duggar's reality show as Counting On later in 2015, focusing on the older Duggar children and their spouses and children. This show, too, was canceled in 2021 after Josh Duggar was arrested. On December 9, 2021, Josh Duggar was convicted of receiving and possessing child pornography.
Joseph Hutchens, the Arkansas state trooper who the sex abuse was reported to in 2006 and who assisted Josh and Jim Bob Duggar by not taking further action, would later be given a 56-year prison sentence for his own child pornography charges. Hutchens later alleged that the Duggar family made an effort to conceal the extent of Josh's sex abuse.
