Alex Jones.Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Alex Jones, the peddler of baseless, far-right conspiracy theories, was found liable for damages in three lawsuits surrounding his false claims that the 2012Sandy Hook mass school shootingwas a hoax.
“They feel relieved,” Bill Ogden, an attorney for the parents, tells PEOPLE. “It is a bit of closure finally to be able to say, ‘What you did was wrong.’ And what you did was defame my character. For years my clients had to relive the one experience no parent should ever have to live in the first place. On top of that they were called liars.”
A jury will decide how much he should pay in damages.
The scene outside Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012.Shannon Hicks/Newtown Bee/ZUM
After the shooting, Jones took to his popular web talk show on Infowars.com, which has trafficked in various fictitious conspiracy theories, to spread baseless and inflammatory statements about the massacre.
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“I, myself, have almost had like a form of psychosis back in the past where I basically thought everything was staged, even though I’m now learning a lot of times things aren’t staged,” he said.
Referencing the judge’s Monday ruling, Jones and his attorney Norm Pattis wrote on the Infowars website that the judge’s entry of a default judgment was “stunning.”
source: people.com
