“I have a lot of respect for these families that are here,” said Mark Bankston, the lead attorney for the parents of a slain Sandy Hook boy who won a $49 million defamation settlement against Jones in Texas in August, casually attending the Connecticut trial. dressed observer. While it may appear to the world watching the trial live that family members involved in the trial are keeping a low profile until they take the witness stand and influence the jury, the reality is that family members played a prominent role during during the first week of the deposition, not only by participating in their attorneys’ trial strategy, but by being quietly present every day in court. There each day for the jury to see in the first three rows of Judge Barbara Bellis’ courtroom were six to 12 members of Sandy Hook families, their expressions alternating between attentiveness in their seats and grim resignation to burial. their heads in their hands and wiping away tears with a tissue. “Can you use your powers of perception to tell this jury whether Benjamin Wheeler was an actor?” lead attorney for the families Chris Mattei asked a corporate representative from Jones’ conspiracy and marketing platform Infowars, referring to a boy killed in the Sandy Hook massacre. “No,” Brittany Paz replied from the witness stand as Francine Wheeler, the slain boy’s mother, looked on stoically from the front of the courtroom. Equally serious, Mattei questioned whether Paz believed slain first-graders Avielle Richman, Dylan Hockley, Daniel Barden and Emilie Parker were actors, as Jones claimed when he called the massacre of 20 children and six teachers at Sandy Elementary School Hook “directed. “Synthetic”, “manufactured”, “a giant hoax” and “completely fake with actors”. “No,” Paz answered each time Mattei asked, as the courtroom’s attention turned to the grim faces of Jennifer Hensel, Ian and Nicole Hockley, Mark Burden and Robbie Parker, the parents of the slain children. The effect on jurors of having family members in court every day was not immediately clear to observers during the first week of the trial, as jurors tended to focus their eyes primarily on the witness, the attorney asking the questions, and the evidence. shown on three large screens in the 50-seat courtroom. While the families’ attorneys’ strategy was to make sure the jury knew who the family members were in the gallery — Mattei asked family members to stand during his opening arguments Tuesday, for example — the defense attorney Jones’ Norm Pattis seemed equally eager to highlight the presence of family members. In addition to the parents of the five slain children, family members of the three teachers killed in the massacre also face defamation in the Connecticut lawsuit: family members of first-grade teacher Victoria Soto, principal’s daughter Dawn Hochsprung, and husband of school psychologist Mary Sherlach; “Not all parents and family members of the victims (of the Sandy Hook massacre) chose to be here today,” Pattis told the court during his opening statement Tuesday. “Every one of the people who chose to be here today want you to compensate them for their grief and make an example of Alex Jones. Money is their weapon of choice.” While it is too early to tell what impact the presence of family members will have on the amount of compensatory and punitive jury awards, it was clear during the first week that being in the spotlight had an impact on some family members . the same members as they heard their horror echoed from the witness stand. “It was horrible — just horrible,” said a divorced William Aldenberg, the FBI agent Jones, describing the scene of the mass school shooting he responded to on Dec. 14, 2012, during the first day of testimony Tuesday. “Beyond the senses.” Family members were already flushed from tears in the packed courtroom Tuesday when Carlee Soto-Parisi took the stand to talk happily about her fun-loving sister, who thought teaching at Sandy Hook Elementary School the work of of her dreams. When asked about the day that changed everything in Newtown, Soto-Parisi broke down in sobs as family members in the gallery wept and comforted each other. Continuing her grief, Soto-Parisi testified, was the harassment of Sandy Hook deniers. “It’s devastating. It’s crippling,” Soto-Parisi said through tears. “You can’t breathe properly because you’re constantly defending yourself and your family.”
Calm before the storm
The emotional opening day for the Sandy Hook families was in contrast to the grim determination family members showed and the low profile they kept for much of the rest of the week in the courtroom. It’s unlikely the family members will be able to stay out of the headlines much longer — especially if Alex Jones flies to Connecticut to testify next week, as his attorney has indicated. The reason: if the Texas trial that ended in August is any indication, Jones’ presence could spark controversy in Connecticut. In Texas, for example, Jones became engaged to the parents he defamed several times during the second week of the trial. On one occasion Jones responded out of turn in court to the mother of a Sandy Hook boy who defamed her, saying, “No, I don’t think you’re an actor.” And to the slain boy’s father Jones said after the jury was dismissed for the day: “I let your son down and I’m sorry for everything.” In addition, Jones’ lawyer in Connecticut has already told the jury in Waterbury that he will argue that the families themselves are partly to blame for the harassment they have suffered from Sandy Hook deniers. “You will learn that each of the parents and family members here has turned their grief and anger over the death of a loved one into a powerful and effective motivator to oppose gun violence and promote school safety,” he said. Pattis to the jury as deliberations began. in part to Nicole Hockley and Mark Barden, the co-founders of the influential nonprofit organization Sandy Hook Promise. “They’ve formed foundations, held road races, testified before state legislators and Congress, met with presidents and written op-eds.” Lawyers for the families promised to tell a different story. “They were defenseless,” Mattei said of the families during his opening argument. “They didn’t have the platform that Alex Jones had. Ask yourself what it means when you’re lost in grief trying to find your way through it, knowing there’s a whole army sent by Alex Jones saying you’re an actor.” [email protected] 203-731-3342
