Third Sandy Hook parent wins defamation suit against Alex Jones

NEWTOWN — A third parent of a slain Sandy Hook child has won a defamation lawsuit against conspiracy extremist and “Infowars” host Alex Jones in Texas.

Neil Heslin will have his case heard by a jury to determine damages along with the Sandy Hook parents in two other cases — Scarlett Lewis and Lenny Pozner — who won their defamation suits against Jones last week .

Bill Ogden, one of the attorneys who represents the Sandy Hook parents in their separate cases against Jones in Texas, said the default judgment in favor of Heslin brings him and the other parents “a major step closer to bringing ... closure to this horrific experience.”

“Alex Jones and Infowars no longer have the ability to make excuses or defend their actions,” Ogden said on Tuesday. “My clients can finally say ‘What you did was wrong. You defamed me. You intentionally inflicted emotional distress on me, and for that, you will be held accountable.’”

Heslin, Lewis and Pozner sued Jones for calling the 2012 fatal shooting of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook School “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax” and “completely fake with actors.”

Jones in court documents argued that he no longer believes the worst crime in Connecticut history was a “hoax,” and that he has a right under the First Amendment to be wrong.

Heslin and the parents in the other two Texas defamation cases asked a Travis County District Court judge to find Jones in default for failing to turn over pretrial documents, known in the legal world as discovery.

The judge agreed, ruling last week that Jones’ had shown “flagrant bad faith and callous disregard for the responsibilities of discovery under the rules.”

“In reaching this decision, this court has considered lesser remedies ... and determined they would be inadequate in light of the history of (Jones’) conduct in this court,” Judge Maya Guerra Gamble wrote in the latest default judgment in favor of Heslin. “[A]n escalating series of judicial admonishments, monetary penalties, and non-dispositive sanctions have all been ineffective in deterring the abuse.”

The defamation cases in Texas are separate from two defamation lawsuits filed against Jones and Infowars in Connecticut Superior Court by eight families who lost loved ones in the Sandy Hook massacre and an FBI agent, where the Judge Barbara Bellis has also threatened default against Jones if he doesn’t comply with discovery orders.

After the default judgments against him in Texas last week, Jones and his attorney Norm Pattis said in a statement, “the First Amendment was crucified today.”

The next step in Texas is for a jury to award damages, Ogden said.

“We look forward to completing discovery on the damages that were caused by Alex Jones and Infowars’ five-year campaign of spreading harassing misinformation,” Ogden said.