Legal action against perpetrators of Sandy Hook conspiracy theories
Alex Jones defamation case
In April 2018, in state district courts in Travis County, Texas, lawyers representing Pozner and his ex-wife Veronique de la Rosa launched a defamation suit against Alex Jones. [16] [17] In August 2018, Judge Scott Jenkins rejected Jones' argument and his motion to dismiss the lawsuit. [18] In the month following the launch of the defamation suits, separate actions were launched in Connecticut, by another six families of Sandy Hook victims, and one FBI agent who was a first responder at the scene. [19] In February 2019, in response to this suit, Judge Barbara Bellis ruled that Jones will have to submit to a sworn deposition, in addition to turning over internal financial, business, and marketing documents related to InfoWars' operations. [20] In 2019, Jones and Infowars lost an appeal against the district court's denial of their motion to dismiss. [21]
The same law firm filed similar defamation cases against Alex Jones and Infowars on behalf of two other parents who lost children at Sandy Hook — Neil Heslin [22] and Scarlett Lewis. [23]
In a separate case by the same lawyers, Marcel Fontaine launched defamation proceedings against Jones for falsely identifying him as the gunman in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. [24] In response, Jones attempted to have the Pozner and Fontaine cases dismissed under the Texas Citizens Participation Act. This act is designed to protect citizens' right to free speech against plaintiffs who aim to silence them through costly litigation. Jones also sought more than $100,000 in court costs from the Pozner family. [5]
As of February 2021, Jones and Infowars lost appeals about all four cases in the Texas Third District Court of Appeal; were denied review by the Texas Supreme Court; and are pending motions for reconsideration of those denials. [25] [26] [27] [28]
The plaintiffs' law firm, Farrar & Ball, set up a website with the filings in each of these cases, and published two videos of their deposition of Alex Jones.
Wired magazine has described the Pozner versus Jones case as highly significant with regards to free speech in the digital age. "Whether Jones wins or loses, his suit, according to First Amendment lawyers, will be a building block for the way we think of free speech in the age of the internet." [29]
Nobody died at Sandy Hook book
 | This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification .(May 2021) |
In June 2019, Wisconsin judge Frank Remington ruled that Pozner had been defamed by the authors of "Nobody Died At Sandy Hook: It was a FEMA Drill to Promote Gun Control." The 455-page book, published by Moon Rock Books, argued that the Sandy Hook massacre had never happened. In it, they claim several times that Pozner had faked his son Noah's death certificate. [30] Pozner's submissions in the case included DNA samples that match those taken by a Connecticut medical examiner that prove Noah was his son. Additionally, he submitted Noah's birth certificate, report cards and medical records into the public record. [31] The judge ruled that there was no question of fact in the dispute, and ruled in favor of Pozner in the libel case: that the co-editors of the book, James Fetzer and Mike Palecek, had defamed Pozner. "This is a victory for myself and my family" Pozner said in an interview. "It is also a victory for the survivors and victims' families of all mass casualty events who have been targeted by these people." [32] In an email,[ clarification needed ][ when? ][ to whom? ] Fetzer restated his belief that Noah's death certificate was faked: "The American people are entitled to know the truth about their own history.[ citation needed ] Pozner later said "If Mr Fetzer wants to believe that Sandy Hook never happened and that we are all crisis actors, even that my son never existed, he has the right to be wrong. But he doesn't have the right to broadcast those beliefs if they defame me or harass me. He doesn't have the right to use my baby's image or our name as a marketing ploy to raise donations or sell his products. He doesn't have the right to convince others to hunt my family." [31]
As the result of a separate judgment against the book's publisher, the principal officer of Moon Rock Books, Dave Gahary, agreed to stop selling the book. After listening to a 15-hour deposition, Gahary said that he no longer had any doubt that Pozner had truly lost his son. "I came away from that believing that he was telling the truth, and I felt personally bad for anything that I had done to contribute to his misery." Gahary, who has published many books on conspiracies, said he had been inundated with hate mail from deniers of the Sandy Hook massacre since his change of heart had become public. He hoped that he was sending these people a message: "If someone like me is saying that I believe him, it should carry some weight, and they should look at this event differently." A jury trial to decide damages was set for October 2019. [33] [31] At the trial's conclusion in July 2020, the Dane County, Wisconsin Circuit Court ordered Fetzer to pay Pozner a total of $1.1 million — $450,000 in jury-awarded damages, $650,000 in attorney's fees, and $7,395.13 in fees and costs. [34] Palecek and Moon Rock Books previously settled out of court. Fetzer said he would appeal. [35] [ needs update ]
