Sept. 29 (UPI) -- Robbie Parker, the father of a girl who died in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, told a Connecticut civil trial jury he faced brutal harassment after conspiracy theorist Alex Jones continued to call the deadly incident in Newtown a hoax.
Jones, who is facing his second civil trial this year to award damages after a court found him liable, targeted Parker in his false claims because of a news conference he participated in a day after the shooting. Jones claimed Parker was an actor and the incident was staged.
Parker's daughter, Emilie, 6, was a student at Sandy Hook when she was shot and killed in a rampage in 2012. Jones seized on Parker cracking a nervous smile as he approached the microphone the day after the shooting, referring to him as a "crisis actor."
Parker said his family saw a spike in online abuse when Jones made fun of the press conference on his Infowars show and said, "They think we're dumb," in reference to the believability of the news conference. The family eventually moved from Connecticut to Washington state.
Judge Barbara Bellis told the jury the trial will resume on Tuesday because they were ahead of schedule and it should wrap up next week.
In August, a Texas jury determined that Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, the parent of Infowars, should pay two parents nearly $50 million to some Sandy Hook victims.
Jones has faced multiple lawsuits after having claimed over the years that the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy...
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