Josh Duggar files motion to dismiss porn star's assault allegation
NEW YORK (Christian Examiner) – After a disastrous year of his own making, embattled former reality star Josh Duggar has filed a motion in a Pennsylvania court to have a porn star's battery lawsuit against him dismissed, according to a report from the celebrity gossip website Radar Online.
Duggar filed the motion Dec. 30, asking the court to dismiss the case because Danica Dillon had not provided enough detail in her allegations to demonstrate long-term suffering and emotional distress resulting from her sexual encounters with Duggar.
In the motion to dismiss, Duggar's attorney Jeffrey Conrad does not deny the pay-for-sex relationship with the porn star, but claims instead that the "liability for intentional infliction of emotional distress has only been found in cases where the conduct has been so outrageous in character, so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency, and to be regarded as atrocious, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community."
The motion also claims that Dillon has not alleged that Duggar forced her into the relationship and there was not intent by Duggar, the attorney said, to "place the plaintiff in imminent apprehension of harmful or offensive contact."
"Her labels and conclusions are not adequate, particularly because she states that she consented to physical and sexual contact in exchange for payment," the attorney said in the motion.
Dillon sued Duggar in November after hackers revealed in August 2015 the names of clients who had used the adultery match-making website Ashley Madison. Duggar's name was among them, leading to the exposure of his sexual episodes with the porn star.
The revelation, however, was not the beginning of Duggar's troubles. In May 2015, news sources revealed that Duggar had sexually abused young girls while growing up. Several of the girls were his younger sisters. After Duggar's troubled history was disclosed, he resigned from his position at the Family Research Council.
Dillon participated in several media interviews about the "rough" physical relationship between her and Duggar in Philadelphia hotel rooms as early as March 2015. In November, she filed suit alleging that Duggar had "manhandled" and "physically assaulted" her on two occasions.
According to Dillon, she first met Duggar in a strip club where he paid her $600 for "lap dances." Then, according to her complaint, he followed her to a hotel where he offered her $1,500 for sex. After the rough encounter, Duggar reportedly apologized and made another arrangement for an equally rough paid sexual encounter.
Duggar has reportedly received treatment in a Christian-based rehab center in Illinois.