Stewart Lucas Murrey is a single man dating in the pricey beach town of Santa Monica, part of Greater Los Angeles. But that doesn’t mean he’s feeling like a bachelor in paradise. In fact, his grievances over his dating life have spawned a hefty lawsuit against multiple women who belong to a local “Are We Dating The Same Guy” Facebook group.

Mr. Murrey, a self-employed “scholar” who prolifically re-posts anti-Israel content on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, is suing Vanessa Valdes, Olivia Burger (who have publicly acknowledged being sued) and 10 other women for making what he says were defamatory remarks about him on the Facebook group, an online community with 53,000 members created as “a place for women to protect, support and empower other women” through the sharing of their experiences with “anyone who exhibits any type of toxic or dangerous behavior.”

Mr. Murrey’s lawsuit makes claims of defamation, sex-based discrimination, intentional infliction of emotional distress, libel, invasion of privacy and more. He alleges that the women he is suing made false statements about him such as saying he is a murder suspect or involved in a murder case; that he has been charged with domestic violence; that he has attempted to extort money from his dates; that he is infected with various sexually-transmitted diseases; and that he lied about being a lawyer (On his LinkedIn page, Mr. Murrey identifies himself as a “scholar” with a PhD from Yale. Yale’s alumni directory shows a Stewart Lucas Murrey receiving a PhD in Germanic Language and Literature in 2011). 

Mr. Murrey, who has a long history of filing lawsuits related to defamation, claims he tried to join the Awdtsg group to defend himself, but was repeatedly denied membership. He is calling his female tormentors “femcels,” a play on “incels,” a term that describes “involuntarily celibate” men who deeply resent how women reject them even when these women should, in their view, be sexually submissive to them. Several self-identified incels have been the perpetrators of fatal mass shootings.

“For years, key defendants obsessively tracked, stalked and incited harassment against me,” Mr. Murrey said in a statement to KTLA. “These are women with whom I had little to no interaction. 

“In every case of interaction, I rejected each one of them and cut them off, quite swiftly. Instead of going their separate ways, they went on for months and years to spread misinformation about me and countless others. Their actions were deliberate, and now they are playing the victims.”

When Mr. Murrey says “playing the victims,” he is likely referring to Ms. Valdes and Ms. Burger speaking out about the lawsuit in an outdoor press conference, and creating a “Legal Defense Fund” on GoFundMe. So far, the women defendants have raised less than $3,000 of their $60,000 goal as they seek out “suitable legal representation.”

“We were simply coming together to share truthful accounts of our personal experiences. These included valid concerns pertaining to the Plaintiff’s unsettling behavior and background, all of which is public information,” the GoFundMe’s description reads. “To wrap this up, it is our opinion that this Plaintiff poses a legitimate danger to the women of Los Angeles. Our negative interactions with him have spanned years. We plan to finally put an end to his harassing ways once and for all, and we need your help to do it.”

Ms. Burger says she is one of a minority of women involved in the lawsuit who have actually met Mr. Mr. Murrey. On their date, she says, he exhibited “typical bad date behavior,” ranted about conspiracies and acted “arrogant and smug.”

On his own webpage, Mr. Murrey says of Ms. Burger that, “The only thing I did to Olivia Burger was to reject her.” He says that upon meeting Ms. Burger, “I felt her pictures concealed certain attributes and lacked the overall perspective from her total in-person appearance.” He says he ordered a takeout pizza at the date venue, made an excuse and fled.

Ms. Valdes, on the other hand, only connected with Mr. Murrey via Hinge and they never encountered each other face to face.

“Right out of the gate, gave me his phone number and said, ‘Let’s hang,’” she said. “I commented with one message saying, ‘Bold move’ with a happy face, and then a barrage of harassing messages came afterward. So I immediately blocked him and reported him.”

Years later, Ms. Valdes made a comment in the Facebook group to describe her experience with Mr. Murrey, who then responded with the lawsuit.

“I shared my personal experience, truthful, and my opinions on his behavior and now I’m being sued,” Ms. Valdes said. “It’s unfortunate that we’re here, but I’m happy to provide all the evidence and get through this. Hopefully, justice will prevail.”

On his personal website, Mr. Murrey claims he was the person who cut off online contact with Ms. Valdes and left her alone, and that she is the one “who pursued this mob rule against me. I am the victim here.” 

He adds that  he “[supports] a safe space for women to protect themselves against being stalked, harassed or harmed, and not the other way around.”

“These women exploited the concept of a safe space to gossip, defame and cyberbully anyone at whim,” his statement reads. “Not only is this illegal, it is overwhelmingly selfish on their part to put their needs and amusement over the privacy and rights of others.”