The parents of two children who died in the 2012 Newtown school shooting are suing Alex Jones for defamation. Jones is a right-wing talk show host and conspiracy theorist who has claimed the shooting didn’t happen. The defamation lawsuits were filed late Monday in Texas, the home state of Jones' media company, Infowars.
The plaintiffs are Neil Heslin, the father of Jesse Lewis, and Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, the parents of Noah Pozner. Jesse and Noah were among the 20 students and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School who died in the shooting.
The plaintiffs filed separate lawsuits seeking at least $1 million from Jones, who has repeatedly used his talk show on the InfoWars website to claim the shooting was staged. The lawsuits allege Jones’s misinformation led conspiracy theorists to make death threats against the families of shooting victims. Last year a Florida woman was sentenced to five months in prison for making threats against Leonard Pozner, one of the plaintiffs in the case.
Jones could not immediately be reached for comment.
