Josh Duggar's Prison Sentence Isn't The Family's Only Trouble With The Law
TLC hit gold with "19 Kids and Counting." People couldn't get enough of the über religious Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their massive brood of children. They opened their doors to TV cameras and offered a peek into their unconventional lives. However, it was soon revealed there were secrets that the Duggars didn't want you to know. The family was hit with a massive scandal after news broke that their oldest son, Josh Duggar, had a history of problematic behavior, to say the least, that ultimately led to his imprisonment. Over time, the double life of other Duggar family members came to light too, and it became apparent that Josh's prison sentence wasn't their only legal headache.
Per CNN, it was the Ashley Madison hack, of all things, that ultimately led to Josh's demise. His name cropped up on the leaked list of the site's cheating spouses. That was just scratching the surface, though. The Duggars' façade was tarnished, and it became increasingly sullied as reporters dived into Josh's past.
In Touch reported that Josh had molested five young girls as a teenager, four of which were his sisters. His parents covered up the scandal and sent Josh to a religious camp to pray his sins away. Clearly, it didn't work. In December 2021, Josh was found guilty of receiving and possessing child pornography. The Duggars' image had been wrecked, their show canceled — sort of — and Josh Duggar's prison sentence wasn't the family's only trouble with the law.
Four legal troubles and counting
While Josh Duggar languished in jail awaiting sentencing, the rest of his family was outside firefighting, extinguishing legal trouble after legal trouble. KNWA reported that Homeland Security Investigations raided an Arkansas business tied to Josh in November 2019 as part of a federal criminal investigation. The HSI website explains it is a "vital U.S. asset in combatting criminal organizations illegally exploiting America's travel, trade, financial and immigration systems."
Next, Joy Duggar's husband, Austin Forsyth, was sued for fraud. In Touch noted that the buyers of a home Forsyth flipped filed a lawsuit against him, claiming he lied about obtaining a permit for a faulty septic tank installed on the property. The documents state the new homeowners' "yard was saturated on the driest of days and that an unmistakable foul odor of human waste emanated from their yard." Per The U.S. Sun, Forsyth settled the case in May 2021.
Then Jana Duggar was plunged into the legal fray. In December 2021, it was revealed she'd been charged with endangering the welfare of a minor. She claimed on her Instagram stories (via USA Today) that it had all just been a misunderstanding. "I was babysitting a few months ago when one of the children wandered outside alone. A passerby who saw the child called the police," she wrote. "This resulted in a written citation, as well as a follow-up with child welfare, who concluded that it was an accident and the child was unharmed."
Denial ain't just a river
Josh Duggar's child molestation and his parents' attempts to cover it up was the first (known) scandal the Duggar family had to deal/not deal with. When news broke that 14-year-old Josh had molested five young girls, including four of his sisters, Jim-Bob and Michelle Duggar immediately went on the defensive.
"The girls didn't know what had happened because they were asleep," Jim Bob told "The Kelly File" as Michelle gazed at her husband, nodding in silence. "So we talked to him, we put all kinds of punishments on him. We watched him all the time, and I took him in to work with me. We just poured our life into it." When asked if they were worried about Josh when they were asleep at night, Jim Bob insisted that "nothing like that ever happened again in the girls' bedrooms."
However, he admitted to two other incidences where Josh fondled his sisters' breasts while they dozed on the sofa. "It was a very difficult situation," Jim Bob said, claiming other families told him it was common behavior. "He was still a kid. He was still a juvenile," Jim Bob continued, confessing there were another "couple of times" Josh told them he'd assaulted his sisters. "This was not rape or anything like that," he charged. "It was like a few seconds," Jim Bob continued, explaining that after Josh's third confession, they sent him to a man who helped young men who'd made "unwise choices in their lives."