FOUR more witnesses will be deposed in Joe Duggar’s court case, months after he was accused of molesting a nine-year-old girl.
The Counting On alum, who remains out of jail on a $600,000 bond, was represented by his lawyer on Tuesday morning in a Florida hearing.
Joe, 31, is facing two charges of lewd or lascivious behavior involving a child under the age of 12, stemming from an alleged 2020 incident in Panama City Beach.
His defense attorney, Albert J. Sauline, appeared in front of Judge Brantley S. Clark, Jr., and explained that his client was skipping court.
Sauline said he had filed a “waiver of presence” for Joe, although he didn’t explain why.
He said the state had received all of the discovery in the case ahead of his upcoming trial after Joe pleaded not guilty.
“There are only five witnesses listed in the case, one of which is of course the juvenile alleged victim, so realistically we’re looking at only four witnesses to be deposed minus any court order allowing a deposition of the alleged victim,” the lawyer said.
He was granted a return date of September 15 at 9am.
According to an arrest affidavit, a 14-year-old girl participated in a forensic interview where she disclosed that Joe had molested her when she was just nine.
When the teen’s father confronted him about the alleged abuse, Joe reportedly admitted to the actions, an admission he reportedly repeated to Arkansas detectives on a recorded phone line.
He was subsequently arrested in March 2026 and extradited to Florida.
The accuser told police Joe repeatedly asked her to sit on his lap, and would ask to sit next to him on a couch and covered them with a blanket during a family vacation.
“During this time, Duggar manipulated the victim’s underwear and grazed her genitals. Duggar would also continue to rub his hands on her thighs,” Bay County Sheriff’s Office alleged.
“The victim stated Duggar eventually apologized for his actions and the incidents stopped after the apology.”
Joe then allegedly “admitted his actions,” to her father, saying “he touched the victim over her clothing.”
The alleged victim participated in a forensic interview with police, according to officials.
Joe secured his release from a jail after his father, Jim Bob Duggar, stepped in to help post the massive bail amount.
However, his freedom comes with strict court-ordered boundaries.
Joe is barred from having any unsupervised contact with minors – a condition that directly applies to his own four children – and he must legally stay at least 500 feet away from the home of his alleged victim.
His attorneys previously fought to dismiss the stay-away order by arguing that the victim had since moved out of the home, which Joe actually owns and allegedly needs to maintain.
They also pleaded to lift the ban on unsupervised contact with children so he could see his own family, but the judge firmly rejected both motions.
To make matters more complicated, Joe and his wife, Kendra, are also fighting separate Arkansas state charges of four counts of child endangerment and false imprisonment.
The couple was arrested by the Tontitown Police Department in March 2026 and has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which are not of a sexual nature.
Few details have been released about the details of the case but the next hearing is scheduled for August.
The couple found fame on the show 19 Kids and Counting, which followed Jim Bob, wife Michelle, and their huge family.
Joe and Kendra’s situation marks the latest scandal to hit the Duggars.
Their public unraveling began in 2015 when TLC canceled their show following revelations that the eldest son, Josh Duggar, had molested five girls.
Because the statute of limitations had already expired, he faced no charges at the time.
However, in 2021, Josh was found guilty of receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material, resulting in a 12-year prison sentence the following year.
That conviction ultimately prompted the network to pull the plug on their spin-off series, Counting On, which was exclusively revealed by The U.S. Sun.
