Sandy Hook dad awarded $450K in suit against conspiracy theorist

A Wisconsin jury has awarded a Sandy Hook father $450,000 for defamation by a local conspiracy theorist who claimed the shootings that killed 26 never happened, according to Madison.com.

Leonard Pozner, the father of six-year-old Noah Pozner who died with 19 other children in the 2012 shootings at Sandy Hook school in Newtown, sued in Wisconsin court Oregon conspiracy theorist James Fetzer, who claimed that the grieving father was circulating fake copies of his son's death certificate.

A Wisconsin Circuit Court judge ruled in June that Fetzer had made four false statements about the death certificate, according to Madison.com. The statements appeared in a book Fetzer co-authored and on his blog, reports said.

A Dane County jury on Tuesday took about four hours to decide that Fetzer must pay Pozner $450,000 for the claims about the death certificate.

In a statement after the decision was announced, Pozner thanked the jury “for recognizing the pain and terror that Mr. Fetzer has purposefully inflicted on me and on other victims of these horrific mass casualty events, like the Sandy Hook shooting,” and emphasized that his case was not about First Amendment protections, Madison.com said.

“Mr. Fetzer has the right to believe that Sandy Hook never happened,” Pozner said. “He has the right to express his ignorance. This award, however, further illustrates the difference between the right of people like Mr. Fetzer to be wrong and the right of victims like myself and my child to be free from defamation, free from harassment and free from the intentional infliction of terror.”

Fetzer contended that the shootings which led to stricter gun laws in Connecticut never happened and instead were staged by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as part of an Obama administration effort to enact stiffer gun restrictions, Madison.com said.

Pozner who is also part of a group of Sandy Hook parents suing "Infowars" host Alex Jones on similar grounds testified in court that he and other grieving families have been terrorized by conspiracy theorists who have made false claims about the shootings and threats.

Fetzer's attorney contended that his client never made threats to Pozner during the jury trial.

Pozner testified during the trial that he's been the target of repeated harassment by people who don't believe the shootings occurred through a memorial website he established for his son, Madison.com.