Wer ist sandy hook

Der Gründer des rechtsradikalen Portals "Infowars" hatte wiederholt gesagt, der Amoklauf an der Grundschule mit 26 Toten sei inszeniert worden. Zu fast einer Milliarde Dollar wegen Verleumdung wurde er bereits verurteilt - nun geht es um Schadensersatz.

Zehn Jahre nach dem Sandy-Hook-Schulmassaker fordern betroffene Familien, Alex Jones zur Zahlung von 2,75 Billionen Dollar Schadenersatz zu verurteilen (anders ausgedrückt: 2750 Milliarden, im Amerikanischen 2,75 trillions). Und das zusätzlich zu der knapp einen Milliarde Dollar, die ihnen ein Geschworenengericht in Connecticut wegen Verleumdung bereits zugesprochen hat.

Sie erklärten, nur "der höchstmögliche Strafschadenersatz" könne den Moderator von "Infowars" davon abhalten, ihnen weiterhin zu schaden. Sie hätten Anspruch auf diesen Betrag, da Jones gegen ein staatliches Gesetz verstoßen habe, das den Verkauf von Produkten unter Verwendung falscher Angaben verbietet. Auf die Summe kommen sie, indem sie das Bußgeld von 5000 Dollar pro Verstoß mit den 550 Millionen Social-Media-Kontakten multiplizierten, die Jones in den drei Jahren nach dem Amoklauf an der Schule auf seinen Facebook-, Youtube- und Twitter-Konten erreicht hat. Bei diesem starben 20 Erstklässler und sechs Schulangestellte. Der Täter hatte zuvor auch seine Mutter getötet und nahm sich am Ende selbst das Leben.

Jones bezeichnete die Familienmitglieder jahrelang als "Krisendarsteller" und behauptete, ihre Angehörigen seien nicht ermordet worden. Er bestreitet zudem, dass seine Äußerungen verleumderisch seien. "Alex Jones macht diese Angriffe aus einem einzigen Grund: Gier", erklärten die Anwälte der Familien am Freitag. "Alex Jones wird sie niemals wie echte Menschen behandeln, weil sie für ihn als Zielscheibe zu wertvoll sind."

Der "Infowars"-Moderator erklärt, er sei bankrott

Richterin Barbara Bellis wird den endgültigen Betrag festlegen, den Jones zahlen muss. Sie hat bereits früher erklärt, dass Jones in ihren Augen gegen das Gesetz über unlautere Handelspraktiken in Connecticut (Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act, CUTPA) verstoßen hat, indem er während seiner Sendungen, in denen er falsche Behauptungen über das Sandy-Hook-Massaker aufstellte, Nahrungsergänzungsmittel und Überlebensausrüstung verkauft hat. Der "Infowars"-Moderator hat derweil erklärt, er sei bankrott und werde den Familien keinen Cent zahlen.

Vor zehn Tagen haben die Geschworenen in Connecticut acht Familien und einem FBI-Agenten bereits 965 Millionen Dollar für die Leiden zugesprochen, denen sie durch "Infowars"-Fans ausgesetzt waren, die Jones' Theorie glaubten. Die Geschworenen mussten sich damals nicht mit dem Gesetz über unlautere Handelspraktiken in Connecticut befassen, sondern nur den Schadenersatz wegen Verleumdung und seelischer Grausamkeit festlegen, nachdem Richterin Bellis in einem anderen Verfahren entschieden hatte, dass Jones die Familien verleumdet habe. Jones hatte sich zuvor wiederholt geweigert, Aussagen zu machen und Dokumente vorzulegen, aus denen hervorgehen könnte, wie viel sein Unternehmen verdient.

Jones hat die Muttergesellschaft von "Infowars", Free Speech Systems, in diesem Jahr beim Bundeskonkursgericht in Houston unter Gläubigerschutz gestellt, kurz bevor eine andere Jury in Texas einer Familie wegen des Sandy-Hook-Massakers fast 50 Millionen Dollar Schadenersatz wegen Verleumdung zusprach. Dem Verschwörungserzähler steht noch in diesem Jahr ein dritter Verleumdungsprozess gegen eine weitere Familie in Texas bevor. Während des Prozesses in Connecticut sagte ein Angestellter von Jones aus, dass seine Unternehmen in den Jahren 2015 bis 2018 einen Umsatz von insgesamt 150 Millionen bis zu einer Milliarde Dollar gemacht hätten.

Der Anwalt von Jones, Norm Pattis, hat bereits angekündigt, er werde gegen den Schiedsspruch der Geschworenen Berufung einlegen.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — For years, bombastic far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones ranted to his millions of followers that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax, that children weren’t killed and that parents were crisis actors in an elaborate ruse to force gun control.

Under oath and facing a jury that could hit him with $150 million or more in damages for his false claims, Jones said Wednesday he now realizes that was irresponsible and believes that what happened in the deadliest school shooting in American history was “100% real.”

Jones’ public contrition came on the final day of testimony in a two-week defamation lawsuit against him and his Austin-based media company, Free Speech Systems, brought by Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of 6-year-old Jesse Lewis. Their son was a first grader who was among the 20 students and six teachers killed at the school in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012.

“I unintentionally took part in things that did hurt these people’s feelings,” said Jones, who also acknowledged raising conspiracy claims about other mass tragedies, from the Oklahoma City and Boston Marathon bombings to the mass shootings in Las Vegas and Parkland, Florida, “and I’m sorry for that.”

But an apology isn’t enough for Heslin and Lewis. They said Jones and the media empire he controls and used to spread his false assertions must be held accountable.

“Alex started this fight,” Heslin said, “and I’ll finish this fight.”

The parents testified Tuesday about a decade of trauma, inflicted first by the murder of their son and what followed: gun shots fired at a home, online and telephone threats, and harassment on the street by strangers, all fueled by Jones and his conspiracy theory spread to his followers via his website Infowars.

A forensic psychiatrist testified the parents suffer from “complex post-traumatic stress disorder” inflicted by ongoing trauma, similar to what might be experienced by a soldier at war or a child abuse victim.

At one point in her testimony, Lewis looked directly at Jones, who was sitting barely 10 feet away.

“It seems so incredible to me that we have to do this — that we have to implore you, to punish you — to get you to stop lying,” Lewis told Jones.

Courts in Texas and Connecticut have already found Jones liable for defamation for his portrayal of the Sandy Hook massacre as a hoax involving actors aimed at increasing gun control.

Now, Heslin and Lewis are asking the jury in Austin for $150 million in compensation for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. They will also ask the jury to assess additional punitive damages.

Jurors began considering damages Wednesday. Once they determine whether Jones should pay the parents compensation for defamation and emotional distress, it must then decide if he must also pay punitive damages. That portion will involve a separate mini-trial with Jones and economists testifying to his and his company’s net worth.

Jones’ attorney asked the jury to limit damages to $8 — one dollar for each of the compensation charges they are considering — and Jones himself said any award over $2 million “would sink us.”

At the end of Jones’ testimony, Mark Bankston, an attorney for the family, pulled a crumpled dollar bill out of his pocket, showed it to Jones, and put it down in front of the parents.

“The day Sandy Hook happened, Alex Jones planted a seed of misinformation that lasted a decade,” parents’ attorney Kyle Farrar told the jury in closing arguments. “And he just watered that seed over and over until it bore fruit: cruelty and money.”

During his testimony, Jones said he’s tried in the past to back off the hoax claims, but “they (the media) won’t let me take it back.”

Jones — who has been banned from major social media platforms for hate speech and abusive behavior — has portrayed the lawsuit as an attack on his First Amendment rights and complained that he’s been “typecast as someone that runs around talking about Sandy Hook, makes money off Sandy Hook, is obsessed by Sandy Hook.”

Eight days of testimony included videos of Jones and Infowars employees talking about the Sandy Hook conspiracy and even mocking Heslin’s description in a 2017 television interview that he’d held his dead son Jesse’s body “with a bullet hole through his head.” Heslin described that moment with his dead son to the jury.

Jones was the only witness to testify in his defense. And he came under withering attack from the plaintiffs attorneys under cross examination, as they reviewed Jones’ own video claims about Sandy Hook over the years, and accused him of lying and trying to hide evidence, including text messages and emails about Sandy Hook. It also included internal emails sent by an Infowars employee that said “this Sandy Hook stuff is killing us.”

At one point, Jones was told that his attorneys had mistakenly sent Bankston the last two years’ worth of texts from Jones’ cellphone.

And shortly after Jones declared “I don’t use email,” Jones was shown one that came from his address, and another one from an Infowars business officer telling Jones that the company had earned $800,000 gross in selling its products in a single day, which would amount to nearly $300 million in a year.

Jones has already tried to protect Free Speech Systems financially. The company filed for federal bankruptcy protection last week. Sandy Hook families have separately sued Jones over his financial claims, arguing that the company is trying to protect millions owned by Jones and his family through shell entities.

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Associated Press writer Paul J. Weber contributed to this report.

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For more of the AP’s coverage of school shootings: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings

Was geschah in Sandy Hook?

Wann war Sandy Hook?