The parents of a Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victim live with a complex form of post-traumatic stress disorder and a constant fear that followers of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones will kill them, a psychiatrist testified Monday at Jones' defamation trial. Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, parents of 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, have sued Jones and his media company Free Speech Systems over the harassment and threats they and other parents say they've endured for years while Jones and his Infowars website claimed the 2012 attack that killed 20 first graders and six school staffers was a hoax, the AP reports.
"The overwhelming cause of their pain is what Jones is doing," said Roy Lubit, a forensic psychiatrist hired by the plaintiffs. Lubit compared the PTSD the parents suffer to that endured by soldiers in war zones or child abuse victims. Heslin and Scarlett Lewis are consumed not just with the memory of their son's horrific death, but the denials and attacks on them and their son's legacy they've endured for years. He noted the security the parents hired to protect them at the two-week trial. Heslin has had guns fired at his house, and Lewis sleeps with a gun, knife, and pepper spray at her bedside. "They are very, very frightened (that) someone, some follower of Jones is trying to kill them," Lubit said.
Jones, who has attended only some of the trial, was not in the courtroom for Monday morning's testimony. The trial is in Texas because Jones lives in Austin and his media company, Free Speech Systems, is based there. The company filed for federal bankruptcy protection, though defense attorneys say that should not disrupt the trial, which is in its second week. Courts in Texas and Connecticut have already found Jones liable for defamation for his portrayal of the Sandy Hook massacre as a hoax. In both states, judges issued default judgements against Jones without trials because he failed to respond to court orders and turn over documents. (More Alex Jones stories.)
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