Texas Judge Maya Guerra Gamble last week issued default judgements against Infowars host Alex Jones in two cases brought by the parents of two Sandy Hook mass shooting victims.
Jones falsely claimed that the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre – in which 20 young students and six adults were killed by an active shooter – was staged by crisis actors who wanted to overturn the Second Amendment. Only later did Jones say he believed the mass shooting was real.
Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa – the parents of 6-year-old Noel Pozner – and Scarlett Lewis – the mother of 6-year-old Jesse Lewis – sued Jones for defamation. They claimed Jones’ comments on his show prompted his followers to harass them.
However, Jones’ lawyer claimed the talk show host’s speech was “rhetorical hyperbole.”
The judge issued the default judgements against Jones and Infowars after Jones routinely failed to reply to requests to produce documents related to his conspiracy theories about the massacre, reports the Huffington Post. The judgement means that Jones and Infowars are liable for the plaintiffs’ damages.
A jury will now decide how much Jones and Infowars will need to pay Pozner, De La Rosa and Lewis.
Two years ago Jones was ordered to pay $100,000 to Neil Heslin, the father of Jesse, reports NBC News. The judge in that case ruled Jones and his defense lawyer intentionally disregarded an order to provide witnesses to Heslin’s lawyers.
Also two years ago, another Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist, James Fetzer, was ordered to pay Pozner $450,000 for falsely claiming Pozner had circulated fabricated copies of his son’s death certificate.
Like Jones, Fetzer claimed the tragedy was staged by FEMA as part of the Obama administration’s efforts to implement gun control.
A psychiatrist testified in Fetzer’s trial that Pozner suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) due to the murder of his son. The expert witness also said that Pozner would have healed long ago had it not been for Fetzer’s defamation, as well as the repeated harassment by Sandy Hook conspiracy theorists.
