(NewsNation) — Two of 10 women being sued over sharing their encounters with a Southern California man on Facebook also shared their stories on “NewsNation Prime.”
Olivia Burger and Vanessa Valdes were among the women on a private Facebook group called “Are We Dating the Same Guy?”
That “guy” is Stewart Lucas Murrey, who is suing the women. He’s claiming defamation, sex-based discrimination, intentional infliction of emotional distress, libel, invasion of privacy and more over the posts in the private Facebook group.
“It wasn’t a friendly conversation where we were having healthy debate,” Burger said of her one and only date with Murrey in 2021. “It was more so him, it seems, shoving his opinions.”
Valdes didn’t have to meet Murrey in person to get the picture. Her encounter was a single social media chat that, she says, got weird.
Valdes says Murrrey “commented on a photo of mine on my profile where he said ‘let’s hang,’ and gave me his phone number. I said ‘bold move’ and I give him a happy face. And then he immediately followed with ‘I’m amused by how you’ll mess it up. Oh wait, you already did. Why is there a guy in your pic genius?’”
“I never met this guy. I blocked and reported him right after that,” said Valdes.
Murrey issued an eight-page statement detailing his version of encounters with the women claiming they “obsessively tracked, staled and incited harassment against me.”
Could he win a suit based on just content on Facebook?
“Absolutely, Facebook posts could rise to the level of defamation,” says attorney and law professor Megan Whiteside. “I’m just not convinced, based on what we know … that this will be successful.”
She also questions Murrey’s very public response to the women, including his long statement and the lawsuit.
“This may be an attempt to try to clear his good name. (But) if the defendants are able to prove the truth of their statements, or to show that they were only opinions, his lawsuit will not be successful.”
Whiteside is not connected to the lawsuit.
Burger and Valdes say they and the other women named in the suit have no attorney at the moment and are asking for help on a GoFundMe page.
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