Hobbsr: Sandy Hook Families Sue Alex Jones and InfoWars for Defamation

Alex Jones doesn't get a whole lot of things right, especially when it comes to school shootings. Earlier this month, Jones and his InfoWars website were sued for defamation after misidentifying an innocent teenager from Massachusetts as the Parkland, Florida shooter.

This week, Jones has been sued by families of victims from another school shooting about which the conspiracy peddler has theories. Parents of two children slain in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut in 2012 filed separate defamation lawsuits against Jones, claiming his insistence that the shooting was staged and the parents are actors has tormented them for years.

Conspiracy Theory Campaign

Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, parents of Noah Pozner who was killed at Sandy Hook, filed their lawsuit claiming Jones and his staff waged a "years-long campaign to convince their audience that Sandy Hook was faked and that the parents are lying." "This conspiracy theory," claims the lawsuit, "which has been pushed by InfoWars and Mr. Jones since the day of the shooting, alleges that the Sandy Hook massacre did not happen, or that it was staged by the government and concealed using actors, and that the parents of the victims are participants in a horrifying cover-up." Specifically, Jones accused De La Rosa of being an actor in a 2017 video titled "Sandy Hook Vampires Exposed."

Neil Heslin, father of slain student Jesse Lewis, also sued Jones, saying the radio host accused him of lying about holding his son's body with a bullet hole in his head. "This heartless and vile act of defamation re-ignited the Sandy Hook 'false flag' conspiracy and tore open the emotional wounds that plaintiff has tried so desperately to heal," according to the complaint.

Both lawsuits contend Jones and InfoWars acted with malice, their defamatory publications have injured the plaintiffs' reputation and image, and that they have exposed them to "public and private hatred, contempt, and ridicule." They cite the case of Lucy Richards, a Florida woman sentenced to five months in prison for threatening Pozner based on Jones' assertions.

Conspiracy in Theory, Danger in Fact

This is not the first time Jones's conspiracy theories have gotten him in legal trouble. NPR reports a former foreign service officer is suing Jones, claiming he received death threats from Jones-inspired conspiracy theorists after posting a video of a woman being struck by a car during protests in Charlottesville, Virginia last year. Jones was also sued by the owner of Comet Ping Pong, a pizzeria targeted by a man with a loaded rifle after Jones claimed the restaurant was the center of a child porn ring.

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