Sandy Hook shooting: Infowars' Alex Jones who called grieving parents 'soap actors' can be sued, says Texas SC
The Supreme Court of Texas has ruled that families of victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting can legally sue Infowars founder Alex Jones. Aggrieved family members of victims have now been granted the legal ability to sue the veteran radio host after he spread 'rumors' about children who died in the massacre. Jones can be held liable in four separate defamation suits filed over the past couple of years by parents of children killed in Sandy Hook Elementary. Jones allegedly used his Infowars platform to spread false theories about the 2012 school shooting, in which a man shot and killed 20 children and six teachers in Newtown, Connecticut, using illegally obtained firearms.
During his commentary, Jones alleged the murders were a "false flag" operation meant to take away people's Second Amendment right to bear arms. He went a step further and accused the parents of the victims of being "crisis actors." "So if children were lost at Sandy Hook, my heart goes out to each and every one of those parents," Jones said in 2016. "And the people who say they’re parents that I see on the news. The only problem is, I’ve watched a lot of soap operas. And I’ve seen actors before. And I know when I’m watching a movie and when I’m watching something real," he added.
One of the suits was brought on by Leonard Pozner and his ex-wife Veronique De La Rosa, and another by Neil Heslin, who sued the Infowars host in 2018 and are represented by Mark Bankston. "Our clients have been tormented for five years by Mr. Jones’ ghoulish accusations that they are actors who faked their children’s deaths as part of a fraud on the American people," Bankston said in a statement. "Enough is enough."
Activist Scarlett Lewis later sued Jones and his company the same year, alleging he had caused families to relive the pain of losing their loved ones. "Since the day of the shooting, InfoWars has aggressively promoted a dreadful and despicable false narrative about Sandy Hook, mocking the families as liars and accusing them of a sinister conspiracy. Plaintiff’s family has been specifically targeted in this campaign of harassment," Lewis' petition read.
"These baseless and vile accusations, which have been pushed by InfoWars and Mr. Jones on a continuous basis since the shooting, advance the idea that the Sandy Hook massacre did not happen, or that it was staged by the government and concealed using actors, and that the families of the victims are participants in a horrifying cover-up," it continued, adding: "InfoWars knew its assertions were false or made these statements with reckless and outrageous disregard for their truth."
According to The Sun, another lawsuit — which was filed in Travis County, Austin in Texas — is from a man Jones 'falsely identified' as the person who carried out the Parkland shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Marcel Fontaine. "Mr. Jones and Infowars have long been consumed with paranoia over the prospect of communist infiltration and indoctrination," read his 2018 suit. "Over the past year alone, Infowars has featured hundreds of sensationalist articles and videos focusing on the threat of communist agitation and conspiracies."
While each of the aforementioned suits seeks damages of over $1 million, six more families of Sandy Hook victims have additional lawsuits pending in Connecticut, according to The Sun.