Duggar Friend & 'Bringing Up Bates' Patriarch Sued For Sex Abuse Allegations
The Duggar family's formerly perfect world continues to come crashing down.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, five women slapped Duggar-favored Christian ministry Institute in Basic Life Principles with a lawsuit, alleging the organization turned a blind eye to "sexual abuse, sexual harassment and inappropriate/unauthorized touching" by employees and agents.
In addition to the IBLP as a whole, six defendants were specifically sued in the Illinois court documents, including Jim Bob Duggar's close friend, Bringing Up Bates star Gil Bates.
Like his pal Jim Bob, Gil is the father of 19 children, and acts as patriarch to his enormous brood on his family's UP tv reality show.
The fervent Christian, 50, who serves as a co-director of the IBLP, is accused along with his fellow defendants of receiving reports of employees' sexual misconduct against "certain interns, employees and participants of its problems," but failing to take any type of "corrective action" until February 2014.
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The plaintiffs allege that the organization's internal investigation conducted during this time was "nothing more than a cover-up" of the sexual abuse accusations.
The female victims are demanding a collective sum of at least $750,000.
The Bates family has yet to comment on the scathing allegations.
The Tennessee-bred Bates have been close to the Duggars for years, and as RadarOnline.com previously reported, it seems Bates son Lawson, 23, is even courting Duggar daughter Jinger, 21.
TLC famously canceled the Duggars' reality show, 19 Kids And Counting, after a previously uncovered police report revealed son Josh, 27, was accused of molesting five minor females as a teen.