The Duggars are suing their Arkansas hometown– and the city is not happy about it!
Yesterday, news broke that four of the family’s daughters– Jill Dillard, Jessa Seewald, Jinger Vuolo and Joy-Anna Duggar— filed a lawsuit against the city of Springdale, Arkansas, as well as two of the city’s police officials and In Touch Weekly magazine, in regard to the city releasing documents related to the Josh Duggar sex abuse scandal.
In the lawsuit, the Counting On stars claim that the city was wrong to release the documents that contained the statements they made to the city police (as minors back in 2006) about Josh molesting them. (Click here to read all about the lawsuit the Duggar girls have filed.)
The Duggar girls claims that the city releasing the documents to In Touch, and the magazine’s eventual story about them, exposed the four girls as victims on a global level, according to the AP.
One day after the lawsuit was filed, the City of Springdale released a statement about it.
“[The lawsuit] claims that that the release of a heavily redacted police report pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act Request was somehow unlawful,” the statement reads in part. “The claims and allegations in this lawsuit are without merit and are false, and we are confident that the Federal Court will take the time to carefully hear the facts and arguments in this matter.”
The City also implies that the lawsuit is simply a money-grab by the Duggars.
“It is unfortunate that now, at this late date, the Plaintiffs have chosen to file a misguided lawsuit against dedicated public servants and seeking damages from public tax dollars,” the City states. (Click here to read the City’s full statement.)
In a statement of their own, the Duggar girls claim that they are only taking legal action to help prevent other children against ‘reckless reporting.’
“This case is solely about protecting children who are victims of abuse,” Jill, Jessa, Jinger and Joy said in the statement. “Revealing juvenile identities under these circumstances is unacceptable, and it’s against the law. The media and custodians of public records who let these children down must be held accountable. This case has vast implications for all our children. We hope that by bringing this case to the public’s attention, all children will be protected from reckless reporting.”
They may be referring to the fact that the police documents released were redacted to remove the victims’ names and other information; however, enough info was left in the documents that it was easy for people to realize that the victims were Josh’s four younger sisters. (Click here to see an example of one of the police records that had identifying info left in.)
On Friday, Jill tweeted a link to a story about their lawsuit, along with a message.
“We hope our lawsuit will send a clear message that releasing the names of juveniles is never OK,” she wrote.
The Ashley will update this story when more information is available.
(Photo: TLC)
30 Responses
There names were redacted. The city did not reveal the names of victims. The only reason that people were able to find out who the girls were is because their family has chosen to do a reality show. If they didn’t have a reality show exposing themselves to the world, then this exact same police report could’ve been published and no one would be able to figure out who the victims were. If you have huge skeletons in your closet (like a pedophile molestor son), you should not pitch a reality show focusing on your family because once you do that, you are risking the fact that even a heavily redacted police report could be deciphered to figure out which girls were molested.
They see their 15 minutes coming to a close. Been a downhill fall for this family thanks to their nasty brother.if they didn’t sue they’d all have to consider real jobs. ?
I’m glad this pedophile fuck was outed! The public should ALWAYS be alerted about sick fucks who do this kind of shit. Fuck you, Josh Duggar.
Sorry ladies, the reports were obtained legally. you seemed to quickly forgive your brother, so maybe forgive the courts for just doing their job?
The main problem is that the info wasn’t “leaked”: it was obtained legally through a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA). All police reports are considered to be matters of public record and subject to FOIA, though personal information can (and should be) redacted before releasing the reports; conversely, there are some circumstances under which a department can deny a FOIA request but this case doesn’t appear to fall under one of those exceptions to the law. If these reports were actually leaked by a custodian of the documents, the Duggars would have an easy legal argument but it appears the city was only following their legal requirement to release the reports.
The real issue here is that if they were not such a famous family, the Duggar girls would not have been easily identifiable through the information that was left visible in the reports (but that is a moot point anyway, as no one would have ever requested these reports if the Duggars weren’t in the public eye).
It will be interesting to see how this case turns out. Members of the media have fought aggressively for transparency through FOIA laws and I think this has the potential to be a landmark case.
As a non US resident that has worked for a privacy expert, I almost dropped of my chair a few months ago when I was able to find police incident reports with names, adresses and a full report of what went on. Think it was the county Nathan, Jenelle or Mohammed lived/ lives.
Reports from the police being called to houses with a detailed description of who said and did what.
One was about stalking, the stalker got lots of info about his victim when he would read the report.
Maybe that information always thingy went a bit too far?
I agree with you that the FOIA laws have created way too much access to sensitive information in the US. There are some things the public does not need to know! The Information Age is not all it is cracked up to be.
And still none of it says their brother said “I’m sorry” to them in every part of their lives, they even had to defend him on TV. “Not a pedophile” but Jessa, was he really not? Joy was 5 at the time being fondled by her 14-15 year old brother. Minors molesting younger minors are also pedophiles.
And I agree to those who say they should sue their parents instead. This whole brainwashing cult made them think like it was “not a big deal” what he did. They even said it is common in their circles. (Which is a horrible thought all in itself).
I don’t agree with them being victimized all over again but they went to TV and publicly announced they were the victims, not the magazine.
nor have the parents who are worse
Those who do not support the innocent girls in this matter are essentially blaming the victims. Shame on you, victimizing the Duggar girls again and again, over and over.
You, OBVIOUSLY, don’t know much about their cult, do you?
Girls/woman aren’t “victims”, it’s their fault according to Gothard.
I agree, Lily. It’s disgusting, the way they’ve been treated.
The guilty always seem to protest too much, which is exactly what Springdale is doing. Two wrongs do not make a right. Local government is probably a mini swamp of rinos and turncoats. The Duggar girls deserve justice and fair compensation, that’s all they are asking for. 100% support the girls.
I totally agree with you. The girls had the right to privacy and that wasn’t respected. And I don’t care if Jim Bob is running this suit just to make money it is important that a precedent be set that no information that could lead to identifying victims ever be released to the media so I hope they win.
Nope. These girls are teaching other women that if you’re the victim, you sit down, shut up, and take it.
They all deserve to be held accountable for the message they’re sending- forgive and forget a fucking pedophile who has daughters of his own, because he’s a man, and in their cult, men can do no wrong.
They were victims, now they are shaming victims.
Use this experience to teach victims to speak out, not be ashamed.
They DID speak out. They gave their account to the police at the time of the matter. And you are shaming them.
So, how often is the media filing FOIA requests in Arkansas for reports about sexual abuse of children that they need to file this lawsuit to fight for the rights of the “possibly in the future wronged”?
Seems like they are just filing for the publicity.
Even if they saved only one child from going through this in the future it would be more than worth it.
No, it’s Not the city’s fault…it’s the pervert Joshs fault! Period.
The city is responsible for their own actions. What THEY did was wrong. They are not mindless puppets, they made the decision and it was extremely harmful to the innocent girls. No one else controlled their wrongful actions. What they did is on them. They own it.
The way they save someone from going through this again is by condemning their brother and by standing up for themselves.
These women are sending a really sick message to rape victims everywhere.
I am sorry to the ends of the earth that they suffered what they did, but two of them have their own children now. If they aren’t concerned for the welfare of their babies, themselves, and the fans that they do have for whatever godforsaken reason, then yeah, zero sympathy for being EXPOSED FOR PROTECTING A PEDOPHILE MOLESTER.
End of the day, that’s what they’re doing.
While I definitely agree that they should be more upset with Josh and their parents for all things considered, I can see why they would also be mad at InTouch and Co. for leaking the story. However horribly the situation was handled when they were kids (and yes, that was horrible), the publishing of it made the relive it all over again and this time in the public eye. They definitely didn’t have the victims’ best interest in mind when publishing it. But legally they did follow the rules so the girls really don’t have a leg to stand on.
What still baffles me is that they all forgave him for the molesting but the cheating was a much bigger problem?
This was all covered when this first came about and whether they like it or not it was done legally. They’re also the ones that went on national television and defended their brother saying that what he did “wasn’t that bad”. Instead of blaming everyone else they should be upset with their parent’s who protected Josh over them. Also, they’re so upset that it was so easy for everyone to put two and two together into who the victims were yet all of this came out about 2 years ago and no one has even been discussing it but they’re bringing it up and rehashing it all over again. It’s funny that they say they’re doing this to prevent this from happening to future victims but I wonder if they were to win any money would it be donated to any kind of victims rights charity?? Somehow, I doubt it.
They are right but their brother is a criminal and still gets paid by TC. So lets speak for the world; other families don’t have 55 kids and an abuser and get paid for ! Cut the stupid show and wear trousers. Jeez..
They should be suing their patents for making them live with their sexual abuser.
*parents
Josh was a minor and so were the girls, it’s awful that the information was leaked. I have no idea if it was legal or not (seems like it was) but if it was it shouldn’t be. Normally I’d hope for them to win but I feel like this is all JimBob’s idea and he’s making the girls do this so he can get some $. He’s pathetic for not helping his daughters and I hope this case gets thrown out.
Josh was a minor at the time of the incident but I believe he was legally an adult at the time the report was filed which is why it wasn’t sealed.
I think it’s kind of a grey area. I think redacting the names covers privacy issues from a legal sense, but because they’re celebrities, it’s easy to put two and two together.
The hypocrisy of it all just really irks me. They have been so brainwashed that they have no desire to hold their brother responsible for what he did or their parents responsible for covering it up and seemingly not getting them any help to cope with the aftermath of being molested. It would seem less like a money grab if they wanted accountability from everyone involved, not just the parties from which they stand to make money from.
I honestly wish the entire Duggar clan would just retreat back into obscurity.
The girls are protecting a confirmed pedophile and molester.
End. Of. Story.
They are sending a really twisted message to victims everywhere and for that, they should be exposed. They’re setting society back fifty years. I wish they had never been hurt, of course, but now that they’re grown, bringing their own babies around Josh, there is no excuse.