Sandy Hook fathers speak out after Jones loses appeal
NEWTOWN — Two fathers who lost children in the Sandy Hook massacre spoke out on Monday after the highest court in Texas rejected appeals by extremist Alex Jones to dismiss their defamation lawsuits against him.
“The First Amendment doesn’t give you the right to slander or defame or spread malicious lies that put people’s lives in jeopardy,” said Neil Heslin, whose son Jesse was one of 20 first-graders and six educators slain at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. “I look forward to seeing Alex Jones in court, face to face.”
The Texas Supreme Court’s rejection of Jones’ appeals is the latest defeat in a streak of legal setbacks for the host of the Houstonbased “Infowars” program, who faces four defamation lawsuits in Texas and Connecticut for calling the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax” and “completely fake with actors.”
Jones, whose lawyers argued unsuccessfully in Texas Supreme Court that the lawsuits against him should be dismissed because his speech is “protected
commentary” under the First Amendment, has said in court filings that he no longer believes that the worst crime in modern Connecticut history was faked.
Lenny Pozner, whose son Noah was slain in the Sandy Hook massacre, said on Monday that Jones’ defense missed the point.
“Alex Jones isn’t being sued because he said that Sandy Hook never happened,” Pozner said. “He is being sued because he directed his 5 million followers to hunt me and my family; he is being sued because he defamed me.”
Jones’ lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“Jones freely acknowledged that he did not ‘know the truth’ about what happened and was ‘not ready’ to ‘point my finger at parents and say they’re liars,’ reads Jones’ appeal in the Heslin lawsuit. “But, (Jones) stated, the media had misreported stories in the past, and ‘we have a right to question it.’”
The Texas court ruling means that three separate defamation suits brought by Heslin, by Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, and by Scarlett Lewis, the mother of Jesse Lewis, will continue in trial court.
The ruling does not affect a separate defamation case against Jones in Connecticut where Jones is appealing sanctions he received for a “blood in the streets” rant to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Sandy Hook denial was in the headlines last week when news surfaced that a freshman Republican congresswoman from Georgia wrote in 2018 “that is all true ” on a Facebook post claiming the Sandy Hook and 2018 Parkland shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida were “stagged [sic],” along with the 1981 assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said “no” last week when asked by a Hearst Connecticut Media reporter asked if Greene still believes the school shootings were staged.
Heslin said he hoped as cases such as against Jones advance to trial, fewer people will trade in lies about horrible crimes.
“Any win in court sends a strong message to people who are going to promote conspiracy theories and hoaxes that there’s a price to pay,” Heslin said.
Pozner, who made news earlier this month when he appeared in a makeup disguise to protect his identity on a “60 Minutes” segment about online harassment by conspiracy extremists, said he respected people’s rights to their beliefs.
“Rep. Greene has the right to believe whatever she wants — she has the right to share that belief even if it is offensive and ridiculous,” Pozner said. “Her constituents have the right to vote her out of office for her ridiculous beliefs. As long as she isn’t defaming victims or using her platform to incite others, she has the right to have offensive opinions.”