The Duggars‘ family friend is in the news again. He’s been mentioned in Josh Duggar‘s motion for a new trial or to have his conviction overturned after the former 19 Kids and Counting star was found guilty on one count of receiving child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography in December 2021. Caleb originally made headlines of his own in 2018, when he was arrested and accused of sexually abusing a minor. Get to know the Duggar family friend, here.
Who is Caleb Williams?
Fans first heard about him when he was rumored to be courting one of the Duggar girls. After he was spotted out to dinner with the family in September 2017, Counting On viewers became convinced that he must be at least exploring the idea of a relationship with Jana Duggar. After all, they were of relatively similar ages — and more importantly, all the other older girls were already married. Though the two weren’t sitting anywhere near each other in the photo, theories quickly started to circulate.
Caleb was spotting hanging out with the family frequently in now-deleted posts from his social media pages. However, in January 2018, he finally shut all the courting rumors down. “Now to clear the fog and avoid any confusion: Read my lips … I am not dating Jana Duggar,” he wrote on Facebook. “Over the past several months since an extremely unflattering image was posted by my friends and spread across the world faster than a viral cat video, there has been speculation regarding a relationship between myself and Jana … The extent of our relationship is purely friends and nothing more.”
What was Caleb Williams charged with?
Caleb was arrested for sexual assault in 2018, accused of sexually abusing a minor. His victim was 16 years old, while Caleb was 23. He pled guilty to aggravated criminal sexual assault in regard to his relationship with the underaged girl. Caleb was later sentenced to 62 days in jail and 18 months probation and required to register as a sex offender.
Where is Caleb Williams from?
Though his family is from Lincoln, Illinois, Caleb was living in Springdale, Arkansas, for a while during the period of time that he was frequently seen with the Duggars. However, the charges against him claimed that his alleged crimes took place in Illinois between May 2015 and May 2018. He has since been registered in Illinois’ sex offender database.
Why was Caleb mentioned in Josh’s motion for a new trial?
Josh’s attorneys argued in their motion for a new trial that their client wasn’t wasn’t the only one who had the passwords to access his work computer, where child pornography images of minors under the age of 12 were found. The motion claimed that Caleb, an “individual who had access to the car lot,” had the passwords as well. He allegedly wrote to the Department of Justice’s trial attorney William Clayman in a follow-up email after talking with Assistant United States Attorney Dustin Roberts that he “was completely mistaken about not being at the Wholesale Motorcars lot during the time I was in Arkansas (AR) between May 8, 2019 – May 11, 2019.”
In another email, Caleb allegedly told Clayman that he “also found a few more passwords if you all want them. At some point several of the Duggar guys asked me to run the back ends of some of their social media to help them sell cars. Jed, Josiah, and Joseph I do believe. I still have access to Jed’s fake account and Josiah’s account,” referring to Josh’s younger brothers.