A California man’s lawsuit against dozens of women who’d criticized his dating behavior hit a snag as he sought $2.6 million.
(Video: Fox 11)
More than 50 women were accounted for in a lawsuit filed by Stewart Lucas Murrey after he discovered that his dating behavior was a topic of commiseration on the private Facebook page “Are We Dating The Same Guy?”
Monday, his efforts dating back to July 2023 hit a considerable setback as the first of several anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) hearing dismissed the claims against one of 10 named defendants.
“Just feels really good to be dismissed from all counts — it wasn’t just the two counts of defamation, but all 11 counts he filed against me,” said Vanessa Valdes at a press conference outside the Los Angeles Superior Court Monday.
In his ruling, Judge Gregory Keosian had stated that Valdes’ posts, “involved a matter of public interest: women’s security against male violence and harassment.”
In her anti-SLAPP. motion, the defendant had included screenshots where Murrey allegedly insulted her on the dating app Hinge prompting her to threaten to report him. In response, the images depicted Murrey messaging, “I’m subpoening you’re [sic] idiot ‘report’ and possibly suing you for defamation.”
“By the way,” he reportedly added, “real decent women love me lol.”
Now, nine named women remain on the suit as Murrey argued he had been defamed and discriminated against for being unable to join the private group where the women had discussed his alleged “rude” behavior. Others who had commented on the posts were named as “Does 1-50.”
Speaking with the Times of London, defendant Kelly Gibbons recounted how she had met Murrey on a dating app and after texts and calls determined that she did not want the relationship to progress prompting her to express, “I wouldn’t want my friend going out with someone like that.”
She went on to detail that she hadn’t met the plaintiff in person until he was said to have shown up at her home to serve her with the lawsuit, “My heart started pounding, as I thought: This man knows where I live.”
“It was pretty eerie. He was filming with his cellphone, walking in,” Gibbons detailed. “I don’t know who wouldn’t get creeped out by that.”
Fellow defendant Olivia Berger addressed the other hearings utilizing California’s anti-SLAPP law against abuse of the legal system and said during Monday’s press conference, “We have various anti-SLAPP hearing in the weeks to come and obviously we hope that with Vanessa’s ruling it kind of sets the precedent for the following hearings.”
For his part, Murrey maintained the claims of the suit that the women “conspired to harm the [his] reputation” and posted a response to Monday’s ruling on his own website that read in part, “This behavior should not be normalized and I am challenging every person in their various roles. The ruling was based only on portions of Valdes’s statements about me and I will provide updates on this subject. However, this is a situation that is bigger than mere libel. We face a threat to privacy and I am prepared for the long fight ahead.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, Murrey had previously taken similar action in 2019 when he sued a woman he met on Tinder for alleged defamation.
“Defamation lawsuits are really hard, unlike going to small claims over a breach-0f-contract case, or somebody owes you money,” said attorney Jeffrey Lewis to the Times, having no affiliation with the case. “People get sued all time for saying things on Facebook, but a group of women posting about a dating experience with one guy, and the one guy deciding to respond with a lawsuit? It’s very unusual.”
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Author: Kevin Haggerty
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