HARTFORD, Conn. — Erica Lafferty, whose mother Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung was killed in the Sandy Hook massacre, said she knew “she was opening a new door to hell” when she decided to sue Alex Jones.
But the lie that she was a so-called crisis actor, rather than the daughter of a victim — a story perpetuated by Jones’ conspiracy theory that the shooting was a politically motivated hoax — had already landed her in hell, she said.
The lies condemned her to a life of grocery deliveries and Amazon orders to avoid stores, of working from home for nearly a decade to stay safe, of always avoiding crowds, new places and new people.
So she sued. And last week she was awarded $76 million in damages from Jones when a jury in Waterbury found the “InfoWars” host responsible for nearly $1 billion in damages to 15 people, victims’ family members and an FBI agent.
Jones was sued by parents, spouses and siblings of the 20 first graders and six educators who were murdered when a gunman opened fire on Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown nearly 10 years ago, along with an FBI agent who rushed to the scene. Within days of their deaths, family members testified that law enforcement officers were making moves to protect them after threats prompted by Jones’ story of a hoax spread like wildfire.
In the weeks following the massacre at the elementary school, where Lafferty’s mother had landed her self-described “dream job” as principal in the idyllic small town, Lafferty was grappling with the gut-wrenching grief of her mother’s murder and simultaneously fielding repeated rape threats online. She described in court, and to The Courant, how men she’d never met shared videos, comments and posts saying that they were going to find her and rape her. All while denying her mother’s death.
The threats, she said, completely altered the course of her life. They doubled down on the heartache she was already experiencing, having lost her mother, so many of her mother’s students and colleagues and finding herself at the epicenter of an international tragedy.
Robbie Parker, the father of killed first grader Emilie Parker, wept in the courtroom when the jury ordered Jones to pay him $120 million in damages.
Parker had moved 3,000 miles away from Connecticut to escape harassment and accusations that he was an actor, but he testified in court that claims that his daughter was alive followed him to Washington.
Jim Allen of Newtown taught music lessons to Benjamin Wheeler, a 6-year-old who was killed in the massacre. Wheeler was a Tiger Scout who loved lighthouses and The Beatles, according to his family.
Benjamin’s father, David Wheeler, was also subject to claims that he was a crisis actor and accused of acting as an investigator at the scene of the shooting, Allen recalled.
Allen said he remembers the anger he felt, and still feels, when he saw the lies spreading about his friends on platforms like YouTube.
“I remember writing to YouTube while I was watching my friends get slandered and held up to all these accusations and theories,” he said. “YouTube and Google, these corporations just allowed this to flourish online. That was a crime as bad as Alex Jones’.”
He tried to get the videos taken down, he said, to no avail.
“I spent hours online fighting against these videos and lies. It made me so angry I can’t even tell you,” he said. “Those corporations and companies just allowed it to happen. Where is that accountability?”
Since the massacre, Allen has remained in close contact with Wheeler’s parents, David and Francine Wheeler. As he watched his friends and community members be subject to rumors, lies and harassment, he said he couldn’t imagine the pain it caused them.
“I couldn’t help but think at the time, ‘This has to be just devastating.’”
Allen said he hopes that this verdict at least shows people like Jones that they will be held accountable.
The jury ordered Jones to pay $55 million to David Wheeler and $54 million to Francine Wheeler.
But even after the jury gave their verdict, Jones reacted with mockery live on his show “InfoWars.” He balked at the $965 million sum. His reaction, said Lafferty, prompted even more hate.
“He’s still doubling down,” she said.
The morning after the verdict, her Twitter account was filled with comments about her and toward her, calling her a crisis actress.
“Is there anything to be done?” she asked. “These people are still coming for me.”
She doesn’t think there is.
“I knew that I was never going to rid myself of this, and I am happy to take the hit if it means that other family members of victims or survivors of high-profile tragedies don’t have to experience [it],” she said. “I am happy to take the hits for the rest of my life if it means protecting them.”
The family of Victoria Soto, who was a 27-year-old first grade teacher at the school when she was killed, said in a statement that they hope the verdict closes a painful chapter of harassment.
“We hope that this verdict will end the nearly 10 years of harassment that our family has endured,” the statement said. “We are real people, who were just living our lives on December 14, 2012, when suddenly everything changed, in a very public manner.”
The 15 people who sued Jones had their lives irrevocably intertwined on that December day, nearly a decade ago.
Lafferty said that the connection she formed with fellow survivors and victims’ families was one thing that helped her get through the torturous weeks of testimony in Jones’ trial.
Lafferty on Thursday said she was heading back to her typical daytime schedule at work with Everytown — an organization working to end gun violence — after working nights and weekends for five weeks to keep on top of her responsibilities while sitting through the trial every day, an experience she called re-traumatizing.
As she listened to family member after family member describe their own experiences on the day of the shooting and the days, months and years of harassment that followed, she said memories began to resurface in her own mind, memories that she had suppressed or buried.
It was simultaneously healing and triggering, she said.
And she said she knows it was hard for the jurors to hear it all, too.
“I wish I could just give each of them a hug,” Lafferty said, “and apologize to each of them for having to listen to our trauma.
“That couldn’t have been easy on them. And the way that they came down and spread this message of accountability, it’s just so inspiring. It really is, and it gives me some hope for humanity in a really dark time where I didn’t have much of that left.”
Another bright light, she said, is the strength of the family she “was forced into” — the network of other victims’ families who sat by her side in the courtroom and have rallied around her for a decade.
She said she wishes she could call her mom and tell her how her Sandy Hook community came together, how they showed strength and bravery in the face of unimaginable tragedy.
“She knew these families; she knew these parents; she knew the educators‘ families,” said Lafferty of her mom, the 47-year-old from Woodbury who was described as a fierce and protective school leader. “She would be just so proud of how everyone stood up and supported each other.
“I am never alone with these families, ever. And I think she would just be so proud of how we came together just like she always did for these families and her staff.”
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