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'Conspiranoid' Alex Jones Condemned for Claiming that the Massacre of 20 Children at the Sandy Hook School Was a Hoax

2021-11-15T20:57:27.932Z


The owner of the fake news website Infowars claimed that the shooting was staged by actors. Now it must be decided how much to compensate the families for their lies.


By A. Planas, C. Siemaszko and The Associated Press -

NBC News

Alex Jones, conspiracy theorist and owner of the fake news website Infowars, was convicted on Monday of claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, in which 20 children and six adults were killed, was a “ gigantic deception ”.

The judge, Barbara Bellis, adopted the unusual measure of forcing Jones to compensate the parents of the children killed in the shooting, considering that he did not “present essential information to prove his claims.” Now

a hearing will

be held

to decide the amount of the compensation to be paid.

Monday's ruling marks the fourth defamation lawsuit Jones has lost against the families, including three in Texas.

Jones during a gun rally in Richmond, Virginia.Win McNamee / Getty Images

"Although the families are grateful for the ruling, they remain focused on uncovering the truth," Chris Mattei, an attorney representing the families who sued Jones, said in a statement.

“As the court noted, Alex Jones and his companies have deliberately concealed evidence of their relationship to what they publish and how they make money.

Jones was given every opportunity to comply, but when he chose to hide the evidence for more than two years from the court, he was left with no choice but to rule as he has done today.

Although

today's sentencing is a legal victory

, the battle to shed light on how deeply Jones has harmed these families continues, ”explained the attorney.

Norm Pattis, Jones' attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

[Shooting at a mobile home park in Tucson leaves 4 dead]

Jones outraged Sandy Hook's parents by falsely claiming that the massacre was staged by actors whose goal was to overturn the Second Amendment.

He later acknowledged that the massacre did occur.

His lawyers defended his speech in court as "rhetorical hyperbole" and denied that it was defamation.

Attorneys for the parents claimed that Jones and their companies, including Infowars and Free Speech Systems, violated court rules by failing to release documents to them, including internal company documents that

showed whether Jones and Infowars benefited from talking about the shooting at the school

and other mass shootings.

A Texas judge also recently entered a default judgment against Jones for two defamation suits.

Terror at a Halloween party in Illinois: gunmen unleash a shooting

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A jury will now be called to decide how much Jones will pay Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, the parents of 6-year-old Noah Pozner;

and Scarlett Lewis, the mother of Jesse Lewis, 6.

Noah and Jesse were two of 20 first graders killed when a gunman broke into the Newtown, Connecticut school in December 2012

and opened fire with an AR-15-style Bushmaster rifle.

Six school employees were also killed.

[

One dead and seven wounded after a shooting at a party in Fort Valley, Georgia

]

Two years ago, Jones lost another defamation lawsuit in Texas filed by Jesse's father, Neil Heslin, and was sentenced to pay $ 100,000 in damages.

[At least two dead and four wounded after shooting at an Idaho mall]

In that case, the judge ruled that Jones' defense team "willfully disregarded" an order to provide witnesses to Heslin's attorneys.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2021-11-15

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