Father of Sandy Hook victim to receive $450,000 from conspiracy theorist author of 'Nobody Died at Sandy Hook' for defamation
The father of a boy killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting is being awarded $450,000 by a jury in Wisconsin after he filed a defamation lawsuit against conspiracy theorists who claimed the tragedy never took place.
Leonard Pozner's six-year-old son Noah was one of 26 victims who died at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012. A Dane County jury finalized on Tuesday the amount author James Fetzer would have to pay Pozner, a retired University of Duluth professor living in Wisconsin, CBS reports.
Fetzer and Mike Palacek co-authored a book titled 'Nobody Died at Sandy Hook', wherein they claimed the shooting was an event staged by the federal government as part of an effort by the Obama administration to tighten gun regulations.
Pozner was reportedly defamed by statements in the book, which claimed he fabricated copies of his son's death certificate, a judge ruled.
However, Fetzer plans to appeal the damages, calling the amount "absurd." Last month, Palacek reportedly reached a settlement with Pozner. The terms of the same are yet to be released.
"It causes people to believe that I lied about my son's death, that my son didn't die and that I'm somehow doing that for some other reasons," Pozner said, CBS affiliate WISC-TV reported.
"Mr. Fetzer has the right to believe that Sandy Hook never happened," he said. "He has the right to express his ignorance. This award, however, further illustrates the difference between the right of people like Mr. Fetzer to be wrong and the right of victims like myself and my child to be free from defamation, free from harassment and free from the intentional infliction of terror."
During the trial, Pozner testified that he's been repeatedly harassed by people who don't believe the Sandy Hook shooting actually took place. Many a time these messages would be posted to his son's memorial website, he said.
According to him, Fetzer's writing threatened his and his family's safety, and even made him worry about how his surviving children would be treated.
That said, the publisher of the book apologized to Pozner earlier this year.