Josh Duggar recently filed a lawsuit against In Touch Weekly due to the fact that the magazine published redacted information about him molesting four of his younger sisters and one family friend. The crime occurred when all in question, including Josh, were underage, however the police file was made public by the magazine in 2015.
The lawsuit against In Touch Weekly was ultimately dropped by a district judge after it was ruled that the First Amendment protected the magazine because they had not published false information. The judge also stated that the magazine is not liable for the police or local jurisdiction mishandling the information .
Josh Duggar’s victims and younger sisters, Jill Dillard, Jessa Seewald, Jinger Vuolo, and Joy-Anna Forsyth, have also filed suit against both In Touch Weekly and local authorities, as they believe their names were not redacted before the information was handed over to the magazine.
Even if the information was redacted, however, it was obvious who the victims were due to the family’s celebrity status with their series 19 Kids and Counting, and the ages of the children mentioned in the police report.
There is a fifth victim of the molestations, but she has remained anonymous. Amy King, the Duggars’ cousin, claims she was not one of the victims, despite speculation.
https://www.instagram.com/p/z1CHrIGrUa/?hl=en&taken-by=annaduggar
Josh Duggar is the main reason that the Duggar family has stopped airing their original television show, 19 Kids and Counting, and a spin-off was created to focus on the lives of the older Duggar children as they marry and have children of their own. When it was learned that Duggar had molested his siblings, advertisers promptly pulled their support from the show unless Josh no longer appeared.
The eldest of the Duggar family, Josh Duggar was also caught in the Ashley Madison scandal, where it was discovered he had been cheating on his wife, Anna. The pair decided to stay together while Josh attended a rehab program for his “sex addiction.”
Many viewers of Duggar shows, however, are very critical of the way the family has handled the molestation situation and feel that Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar let their son off far too easily.
[Featured Image by Anna Duggar/Instagram ]