The defamation claim names a Liberty University professor, Basyle Tchividjian, as one of the defendants.

Boyer filed the suit April 14 in Lynchburg Circuit Court, but the complaint had not been served on the three defendants as of Monday. Once served, they will have 21 days to respond.

According to the lawsuit, Ashley Easter defamed him by publishing a blog article titled “Rick Boyer Sr. and Sexual Boundary Crossing: My Story,” which she put on her blog in April 2016.

Boyer is the founder of The Learning Parent, later renamed Character Concepts, a home-based business that provides a Christian curriculum.

According to the lawsuit, Ashley Easter’s husband “Will” Easter first approached Boyer in November 2015 with a recorded video of her making a less-specific recitation of the allegations she eventually would publish in the blog.

Boyer denied to Will Easter her allegations of incidents of contact including kisses on the cheek, according to the lawsuit. The complaint also quotes Ashley Easter’s blog as relating an alleged incident in Boyer’s basement office in which she said he pulled her in tightly for a hug. That claim is “false and defamatory,” the suit says.

A number for Ashley Easter was not listed, and attempts to reach Will Easter at his business were not successful.

Boyer’s lawsuit rejects the allegations in the blog as defamatory.

The suit says Ashley Easter’s extended family and the Boyers “have a very close personal relationship,” that he watched her and her siblings grow up and he considered her “almost as a daughter.”

Boyer “engaged in appropriate displays of affection toward his daughters when in public and at church [and] would receive hugs and kisses on the cheek” from them, the court papers say. Ashley Easter at the time would give hugs to Boyer at church with his wife and her parents present, the suit says.

“Neither [Easter] or her parents ever stated to [Boyer] any objection to the affectionate contact,” which sometimes was initiated by him and frequently by her, the lawsuit adds.

The suit points out that even after one alleged event, Easter continued driving to Boyer’s residence to spend time with his daughters.

Boyer’s action claims not only did Easter defame him in her own blog, but the story was picked up by other blogs in April 2016.

It also says the law professor, Tchividjian, immediately upon Ashley Easter’s blog publication tweeted the link to her article from his social media account with the comment: “A sobering account of a spiritual leader’s predatory behavior and the brave young woman he targeted.” The suit claims Tchividjian made no effort to verify her story or to investigate whether it was true or false.

Tchividjian’s biography on the LU School of Law website names him as “the founder and executive director of GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment), an organization that educates and equips faith communities to correctly respond to sexual abuse disclosures, while also providing practical guidance on how to protect children and serve survivors.”

Tchividjian could not be reached for comment Monday.

Boyer’s lawsuit — spanning 57 pages not including exhibits — seeks against all three a judgment of about $790,000 in compensatory damages for economic losses and $200,000 in punitive damages for alleged defamation.

Separately the lawsuit seeks, against the Easters, $2.37 million for alleged business conspiracy, or one-third of that if the judge only finds common-law conspiracy.

The action also seeks three more judgments against the Easters: $400,000 for a tortious interference claim; $50,000 for an intentional infliction of emotional distress claim; and $200,000 for allegedly misappropriating Boyer’s name for commercial purposes.

Boyer also wants an injunction to stop any further such use of his name.

His son Rick Boyer, a Campbell County attorney serving as the plaintiff’s lawyer, said the lawsuit was filed by April 14 to avoid triggering a one-year statute of limitations on a civil action. Legal claims also will be pursued against other blogs that posted Easter’s allegedly defamatory content, he said.

“The fact is the charges are unequivocally false, and we intend to demonstrate that to the satisfaction of a court of law,” he said.