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Josh Duggar Angling To Get Catfishing Lawsuit Thrown Out, Claims He Didn’t Cheat On Anna In California

By Treva Bowdoin
Published on: 06:45 PST, Oct 27, 2017

Josh Duggar is being sued for using another man’s photo to lure potential sexual partners, and the former 19 Kids and Counting star has decided that he’s not going to settle the case out of court in hopes of making his catfishing scandal fade away. Instead, Josh is fighting the man whose life he allegedly threw into turmoil by stealing his image.

Fans of the Duggar family were shocked when it was discovered that Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s oldest child, Josh, had cheated on his wife of nine years, Anna Duggar. During his search for someone to have an extramarital affair with, Josh set up multiple secret accounts on dating websites and social media pages. He used another man’s photo on many of these accounts, including a Twitter page and profiles on OKCupid and Ashley Madison.

As reported by the Daily Mail, Josh is being sued by the man whose image he tried to pass off as his own, a Los Angeles-based DJ named Matthew McCarthy. However, the Duggar son is attempting to get the lawsuit thrown out by arguing that California is not the proper jurisdiction for the case. Josh recently filed a motion to quash a summons to appear in a Los Angeles County court, contending that he can’t be sued in California because he did not use any of his online dating profiles to hook up with anyone in the state.

Matthew McCarthy has argued that he can sue Josh Duggar in California because the defendant has visited the state twice. However, Duggar’s attorney claims that his visits to the state had nothing to do with his attempts to catfish women using McCarthy’s photo.

“If a visit to California creates jurisdiction, then California courts have jurisdiction over virtually everyone in the United States,” the motion to quash read. “[Duggar’s] two visits here in 2013 and 2015 have nothing to do with [McCarthy’s] claim that [Duggar] used his picture on the internet. Neither involved contacts related to this lawsuit.”

According to Litigation by the Numbers, McCarthy’s lawsuit against Duggar will be dismissed if the California court finds that it does not have jurisdiction. However, if the court sides with McCarthy, his lawsuit will proceed.

People reported that Matthew McCarthy filed his lawsuit against Josh Duggar last August. In court documents, the DJ claimed that he was losing jobs because of his unwanted association to the beleaguered father of five. He alleged that he was being harassed and given offensive nicknames like “Duggar’s boy toy” and “DJ Duggar.” He also wrote that Josh’s actions caused him to experience “prolonged pain and suffering, anxiety, depression, embarrassment, humiliation, loss of self-esteem and extreme and severe mental anguish and emotional distress including but not limited to frequent panic attacks, disruption of sleep and insomnia, mood changes, fits of anger, a loss of interest in pursuing both professional and personal endeavors, and a complete loss of self-confidence.”

This isn’t the only lawsuit Josh Duggar has recently been involved in. As reported by the Huffington Post, he sued In Touch Weekly and various Arkansas officials over the release of police records describing the sexual abuse that four of his younger sisters suffered at his hands. Josh argued that he also became a victim when the documents were released and published online because he was underage when the molestation took place.

Josh Duggar’s list of grievances was somewhat similar to McCarthy’s; it also included “emotional distress,” “embarrassment,” and “humiliation.” According to Arkansas Online, an Arkansas federal judge “dismissed virtually all” of Duggar’s claims earlier this month.

[Featured Image by Josh Duggar/Twitter]

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