After enjoying his 15 minutes in the reality TV limelight, one of the contestants from The Bachelorette's seventeenth season will potentially now be most noteworthy for being arrested over child porn. Miami resident Joshua Tylerbest, who was one of the many elimination-bound hopefuls who were vying for the love of Katie Thurston during the episodes that spanned Summer 2021, was revealed to have been arrested and charged over child pornography.
While news of Tylerbest's arrest is only now making the rounds, he was reportedly arrested in Miami in February, according to TMZ. He was charged formally with 15 different counts of possession of materials showing sexual performance by a child. The IT consultant pled not guilty to the charges, and was released on a $5,000 bond, according to Page Six.
According to legal documents tied to the case, authorities were first tipped off when a Google account registered under Tylerbest's name was flagged over the alleged upload of somewhere around 50 different pictures and videos depicting child sexual abuse. The cops involved obtained a search warrant to further investigate the Google account in question, and reportedly discovered evidence of Joshua Tylerbest directly interacting with the illegal images.
At this point, authorities were granted access to search Tylerbest's home, from which it's reported they seized a variety of electronic devices. An iPhone noted as being one of the items, and police allegedly found 15 files that qualified as child pornography to be on the phone.
According to the cops involved, among those videos were clips of children engaged in sexual acts with adults. It's reported that some of the videos featured children under the age of 10.
Joshua Tylerbest The Bachelorette experience didn't end in true love. He ended up getting eliminated during the fifth week of Season 17, along with Andrew Milcovich and Quartney Mixon. Tylerbest arguably didn't stand out for any particular reasons during his time on the show, and didn't go on to visit the island for Bachelor in Paradise. That season also ended in controversy unrelated to the Miami contestant, with finalist Greg Grippo getting accused of gaslighting.
The promo video below for Katie Thurston's sex-positive season of The Bachelorette features Tylerbest.
Sadly, this arrest isn't the lone example of a reality TV personality facing charges tied to the abuse of children, sexual or otherwise. Arguably the most noteworthy case is centered on former 19 Kids and Counting co-star Josh Duggar, who is currently serving a 12 1/2-year jail sentence for his two charges. But recent years have also seen the arrests of Jared Harris (of Netflix's Cheer) and others, with former Worst Cooks in America winner Ariel Robinson getting convicted in 2022 of homicide by child abuse.
