Josh Duggar Hometown ‘Prays’ Court Dismisses Molestation Lawsuit

The city of Springdale, Arkansas responded to Josh Duggar‘s lawsuit over the release of documents related to the investigation of his alleged sexual molestation of four of his sisters and a baby sitter in 2002 and 2003. Duggar’s hometown “prays” the court dismisses the case.

According to RadarOnline, Duggar is suing Springdale and Washington County over the release of the documents, which revealed details on the investigation. Although police reports showed that Duggar’s father Jim Bob Duggar reported to Arkasnas police about learning his son molested the young girls, the information was not reported on until a May 2015 InTouch Weekly report.

When the Duggar family was scheduled to appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2006, the producers received a tip about the allegations and they contacted Arkansas authorities. However, the statute of limitations ran out and no charges were filed.

Duggar has claimed that the release of these documents led to “severe emotional distress, mental anguish and substantial loss of income.” He claims anyone would feel “seriously offended and aggrieved by the intensely negative publicity as a result of the illegal release.”

Late last month, Washington County responded, denying every claim in Duggar’s lawsuit. They demand a trial by jury and said Duggar “has failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted,” according to documents obtained by RadarOnline.

In its similar response, Springdale denied the claims and said “any information disclosed by the city of Springdale was already public.”

“The City of Springdale prays that this Court dismiss Plaintiff’s Complaint against the City of Springdale in its entirety, with prejudice, as a matter of law,” the response reads. The city wants the judge to order Duggar to pay attorney’s fees and costs.

Duggar has filed similar lawsuits in federal court, which were dismissed.

After the molestation scandal exploded, TLC ended the Duggars’ show 19 Kids and Counting. However, the family remains a major part of the network’s schedule with Counting On, which initially focused on his two of his victims, his sisters Jill Dillard and Jessa Seewald. Over time, the show has expanded to include the rest of the family. Although Duggar does not appear, his wife Anna and their children have been on in the past.

In 2015, Jill and Jessa sat down with Megyn Kelly for an emotional interview, in which they admitted to being two of their older brother’s victims.

“Well, I think in the case of what Josh did, it was very wrong,” Jessa said on The Kelly File at the time. “I’m not going to justify anything that he did or say it was ok, not permissible, but I do want to speak up in his defense against people who are calling him a child molester or a pedophile or a rapist, some people are saying. I’m like that is so overboard and a lie really, I mean people get mad at me for saying that but I can say this because I was one of the victims. So I can speak out and I can say this and set the record straight here.”

She continued, “Like in Josh’s case, he was a boy, a young boy in puberty and a little too curious about girls. And that got him into to some trouble. And he made some bad choices, but really the extent of it was mild, inappropriate touching, on fully clothed victims, most of it while girls were sleeping.”