Jessa Duggar Seewald Speaks Out About Sister Jana's Legal Troubles
The Duggar family has been making headlines in 2021 for all the wrong reasons. In December, oldest son Josh was found guilty of two charges of receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material, according to People. During the trial, it was revealed that agents found evidence of photos and videos of children, some even younger than 10 years old, being sexually abused that had likely been accessed and then deleted on Josh's work computer. As a result, he is facing up to 20 years of in prison and $250,000 in fines on each of the two counts.
It was then revealed that Josh's sister, Jana, was issued a citation for endangering the welfare of a minor in September 2021, and pleaded not guilty to the charge. She was released on bail and has a court date set for January 2022. The legal documents, however, do not go into detail about the exact charges that Jana is facing (per WGN TV). However, Katie Joy, who follows the Duggar family through her Without a Crystal Ball Instagram account, has reported that Jana faces a 3rd degree endangerment charge for allegedly failing to watch a 22-month-old child in her care, who then subsequently wandered off the family's property and was found near a busy road. "We know the child is safe. However, we also know that there is an open DHS investigation involving the child & Jana. This was provided to me via the court," wrote Joy.
If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.
Jessa Duggar is standing up for her sister
While the Duggar family has remained mostly silent on Jana Duggar's legal troubles, Jessa Sewald did speak out on her sister's behalf. "Bottom line — it was an innocent mistake," Jessa wrote (per People), adding that "the media is sensationalizing this because of other current family circumstances and it makes me so mad."
In addition, Jana released her own statement on the incident because "the media has been having a field day with it all listing" and wanted to share the "raw facts" about what she says really happened that day. "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 (per US Weekly). "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." She explained that she was never arrested and says she is "thankful it all ended safely and that's truly what mattered the most to me."