In the five years since Noah Pozner was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Ct., death threats and online harassment have forced his parents, Veronique De La Rosa and Leonard Pozner, to relocate seven times. They now live in a high-security community hundreds of miles from where their 6-year-old is buried. On Wednesday in an Austin, Tx., courtroom, the struggle of the Sandy Hook families to hold to account Alex Jones, a powerful leader of this online community, will reach a crossroads, the New York Times reports. Lawyers for Noah Pozner’s parents will seek to convince a Texas judge that they and families of eight other victims in the 2012 shooting that killed 20 first graders and six adults have a valid defamation claim against Jones, whose Austin-based Infowars media operation spread false claims that the shooting was an elaborate hoax.
The Pozner hearing is a bellwether in three cases filed by relatives of nine Sandy Hook victims. It comes as the social media platforms Jones relies on to spread incendiary claims try to curb him. On Thursday in the same courthouse is a hearing in a separate defamation case against Jones brought by Marcel Fontaine, who was falsely identified on Infowars’ website as the gunman in the Parkland, Fl., school shooting in February. Jones is trying to have the cases dismissed under the Texas Citizens Participation Act, which protects citizens’ right to free speech against plaintiffs who aim to silence them through costly litigation. He seeks $100,000 in court costs from the Pozner family. Jones gained a national spotlight and millions of followers after President Trump appeared on his show during the campaign, praising his reputation as “amazing.” Last week, Jones broadcast a bizarre accusation that special counsel Robert Mueller was involved in a child sex ring.