A third civil suit has been filed in Douglas County Circuit Court against a Wascott man linked to misleading pictures and comments he allegedly posted on FetLife, a social media website for people with unconventional sexual practices.
The newest suit against Jay E. Link was filed Sept. 23 and involves eight women as plaintiffs, doubling the number of women who are seeking civil damages from Link in connection with the social media site.
According to the 27-page complaint filed Sept. 23, photos of the women were posted to the site by a user with the screen name “Sexsafari,” who the complaint identifies as Link. Some were pictures that appeared to have been taken from the women’s Facebook pages; others were intimate photos the women say were taken by Link. In the captions, women were identified by their first name and called “sluts” or, in some cases, “trained sluts,” who had engaged in sex with him. All but one of the plaintiffs were Facebook friends with Link; one woman said she has never met him.
The plaintiffs claim Link invaded their privacy, caused emotional distress and defamed them with his posts. They are seeking punitive damages.
Many of the women became aware of the FetLife postings when the first civil suit, which represented seven women, was filed in July 2019. The second suit, involving a single plaintiff, was filed three months later. A jury trial for the second suit is scheduled for Oct. 26-29 2021, according to online court records.
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The Washburn firm of Spears, Carlson and Coleman filed the first civil suit against Link and initially planned to add the new plaintiffs to that case. In a July motion, the firm sought to amend the complaint.
“We ultimately decided to file a new case with these plaintiffs,” said attorney Linda Coleman.
Link has 45 days from the filing date to respond to the new suit.
