Josh Duggar is freed on bail for child porn charges and heads to home of ‘family friend’

Accused pedophile Josh Dugger walked free from jail today as he awaits trial on federal child pornography charges.

Duggar, 33, said nothing as he was released from the Washington County Detention Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas and will now spend the next two months in home detention with family friends.

LaCount Reber and his wife Maria agreed to house the father-of-six despite authorities revealing this week that he kept a sickening trove of 200 child porn images on his computer.

Duggar, best known for being a part of his family’s reality show, 19 Kids and Counting, won’t be allowed to return home to his pregnant wife Anna and their six children.

Instead, he will be electronically monitored and must remain with the Rebers at their home until his trial on July 6 trial for possession of child pornography, which he denies.

Duggar spent seven nights in jail following his arrest before being released from custody at around 2:30pm local time, emerging from the detention center entrance in an untucked shirt, jeans and sneakers, his face covered with a mask.

Clean-cut Christian couple Maria and Lacount had told the court Wednesday they do not know Josh well but are good friends with his father. They assured the judge there was no WiFi at their home, only a dial-up connection. 

Duggar will not be allowed to return home to his wife and children, who live on his parent’s property. Duggar’s wife Anna is pregnant with their seventh child

The 19 Kids and Counting star will stay with Maria Reber and her husband Lacount, pictured, who told the court they do not know Josh well but are good friends with his father

Under the release to third-party custodians, Duggar must wear an ankle monitor, have a probation officer’s permission to leave the couple’s home, can not access the internet, or be inside a residency where firearms are stored. 

Judge Christy Comstock of the Western District of Arkansas had on Wednesday granted him his freedom ahead of his July trial.  

The court heard on Wednesday how his computer had a program dubbed Covenant Eyes installed to monitor questionable online usage and then send reports back to his wife Anna. 

But Homeland Security special agent Gerald Faulkner testified that that there was a TOR browser that allowed for anonymous browsing on the dark web.       

Granting bail, the judge said Wednesday: ‘It’s not the average defendant who can operate in the black web and partition their computer and bypass sophisticated monitoring devices.’ 

His arrest comes six years after revelations that he had sexually abused five minors, including four of his younger sisters, back when he was a teenager. 

Josh Duggar of the hit reality TV show 19 Kids And Counting has pleaded not guilty to receiving and possessing child pornography after he was arrested and charged in Arkansas last week

Duggar’s family rose to fame on TLC, where cameras documented their lives as an exceptionally large fundamentalist Christian family. 

The agent could not say for certain when the Covenant Eyes software was downloaded onto Duggar’s computer.    

But he testified that the images found on Duggar’s computer were ‘in the top five of the worst of the worst that I’ve ever had to examine’. 

The password for the browser program was allegedly the digits of Duggar’s birth year. It is the same password used for his bank accounts and other online sites, the agent said. 

Duggar’s father Jim Bob approached the Rebers to ask if Josh could stay with them, as third-party custodians.

Maria Reber testified: ‘We want to help the family and minister to them. My husband has made the decision and I’m here to support that decision.’  

LaCount, 49, is an MRI tech with the US Department of Veterans Affairs and was previously a volunteer chaplain at the Washington County Detention Center, where Duggar has been locked up since his April 29 arrest.

He and Maria, 53, a fulltime homemaker, were described at a bail hearing Wednesday as longstanding church friends of Duggar patriarch Jim Bob and his wife Michelle.

The Duggars turned to them for help in particular because of LaCount’s experience within the prison system. 

Josh and his wife Anna with their children Mackenzie, 11, Michael, nine, Marcus, seven, Meredith, five, Mason, three, and Maryella, one, in 2019

The Duggar family in 2014. The reality show was axed in 2015 when it emerged father Jim Bob had reported son Josh Duggar to authorities for molesting young girls in 2002. Two of Duggar’s sisters later said they were victims 

LaCount and Maria have two kids of their own, Lemuel, 24, who studied biochemistry at the University of Arkansas and recently married.

Their daughter Hannah, 22, a talented classical pianist, teaches music out of the family home but the court heard her students would always be around an adult. 

Investigators seized Duggar’s computer and cellphone during a 2019 raid on his now-closed car dealership, Wholesale Motorcars. 

When the raid was carried out and before Duggar knew what authorities were investigating, Duggar had allegedly asked agents: ‘What is this about? Has someone been downloading child pornography?’  

Duggar, whose wife Anna is pregnant with their seventh child, was arrested last week on child porn charges. He is pictured above following his arrest

His arrest followed a Homeland Security raid on his now-closed car dealership, Wholesale Motorcars, in Springdale, Arkansas back in November 2019. He was not charged at the time

Duggar was asked about having child porn in his possession and he allegedly responded: ‘I’d rather not answer that question.’

Duggar is alleged to have downloaded the child sexual abuse material online back in 2019 on May 14, 15 and 16. 

If convicted of the child porn charges, Duggar faces up to 20 years in prison.