A California man is suing more than 50 women for $2.6 million after they shared negative stories about him on a “Are We Dating The Same Guy” Facebook page, claiming their reviews were false and defamatory.
The women say Stewart Lucas Murrey is using the legal action to intimidate them, and they’re asking the courts to slap him down.
On Monday, a judge in Los Angeles civil court ruled that one of the women — Vanessa Valdez — did nothing wrong by sharing her opinion of Murrey with the popular online group
Another woman hit with a lawsuit by Murrey, Kelly Gibbons, said the first time she saw the man in real life was when he came to her house to drop off the lawsuit.
“My heart started pounding, as I thought: This man knows where I live,” she told the Times of London.
“It was pretty eerie. He was filming with his cellphone, walking in. I don’t know who wouldn’t get creeped out by that.”
The women targeted by Murrey — who claims they ruined his dating life and damaged his reputation — are hoping the ruling will set a precedent and prevent him from further using the legal system against them.
They are invoking California laws meant to deter junk lawsuits, called anti-SLAPP laws.
Gibbons penned the initial post about Murrey in the Los Angeles chapter of “Are We Dating The Same Guy?” after meeting on a dating app and texting for a few weeks.
Gibbons chatted with Murrey on the phone before she decided she did not want to meet him in person.
The interaction went so badly that she wanted to warn other women about his rude behavior, noting, “I wouldn’t want my friend going out with someone like that.”
The private “Are We Dating The Same Guy” Facebook group, which originated in New York City in 2022, is part of a wider network of groups where women share information about negative dating encounters they’ve had in their respective cities. The Los Angeles chapter currently has some 53,000 members.
At the time of Gibbons’ post, only about 10,000 women were in the group. Despite this, other women began joining Gibbons in detailing their bad interactions with Murrey, some sharing screenshots of exchanges on dating apps and recounting in-person dates.
Others just left comments.
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