Josh Duggar Files to Join Sisters' Privacy Lawsuit Against Magazine and Police
"19 Kids and Counting" star Josh Duggar wants to be involved in his sisters' lawsuit against In Touch Weekly magazine and the Arkansas police department.
In 2015, Duggar dealt with public scrutiny after a magazine revealed that his sisters told the police that they had been molested by him back when they were younger. Duggar has recently filed documents to join the lawsuit, and he is seeking damages for the harm he faced after his molestation scandal documents were released to the public. Additionally, the 29-year-old said he was "forced into seclusion for fear of his safety" because of the incident.
Four of Duggar's sisters (Jill, Jessa, Jinger, and Joy-Anna) initially filed the breach-of-privacy lawsuit against the magazine's publishers, as well as the city of Springdale and Washington County, Arkansas.
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Court documents obtained by E! News show that the lawsuit came from an investigation in 2006 about Josh having sexual contact with his sisters. To make matters even worse, he was a minor at the time. In Touch reportedly got hold of copies of the incident report and other documents by filing a request under the Freedom of Information Act. The magazine broke the news about the incident subsequently in 2015.
According to the lawsuit filed by the Duggar sisters, they were minors at the time and they were advised that their statements would be kept confidential and only available to the authorities.They also claimed that the release of such documents violated Arkansas codes, so they are seeking an unspecified amount of damages due to invasion of privacy.
"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," said the sisters' attorneys in a press release.
Several media outlets have already reached out to representatives from the city, county and In Touch magazine, but they have yet to release a statement on the issue.
