(NEW YORK) — A second trial to determine what conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should pay to Sandy Hook families began Tuesday in Connecticut with an attorney for the families calling what Jones said about the deadliest elementary school shooting in the nation’s history “beyond the pale.”
The attorney, Chris Mattei, told the jury Jones cooked up lies about the massacre to profit off his audience’s fear that the government would take away guns.
“The government staged it. People knew about it in advance. Parents were suspects. They were reading from a script,” Mattei recited some of what Jones said on his show during an opening statement.
The jury will decide how much in damages Jones should pay to an FBI agent who responded to the scene and eight families of victims that Jones called actors.
“None of them wanted to bring this lawsuit. They don’t want to be here,” Mattei said.
Instead, the attorney said the families sought to prevent Jones from preying on other families who experience tragedy.
“Will you stop him? That’s going to be in your hands,” Mattei said.
The plaintiffs successfully sued Jones for defamation in November 2021 and are seeking to hold him financially liable for his comments, which include calling them “crisis actors,” saying the massacre was “staged” and “the fakest thing since the three-dollar bill.”
The defense said the trial was meant to determine damages and urged the jury to refrain from making a statement.
“We don’t want you to do anything here but follow the law as the court instructs you,” defense attorney Norm Pattis said Tuesday. “You’ll hear nothing from the judge about stopping Alex Jones.”
The trial comes a month after a Texas jury ordered Jones to pay nearly $50 million to the parents of one of the victims.
In that trial, Jones was successfully sued by the parents of a 6-year-old boy who was killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre after he claimed that the shooting — where 20 children and six adults were killed — was a hoax, a claim he said he now thinks is “100% real.”
As in that trial, the judge has already entered a default judgment against Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems.
“Alex Jones and Free Speech Systems are liable under Connecticut law,” Judge Barbara Bellis told jurors. “Mr. Jones used multiple channels to distribute these statements to his audience including the InfoWars family of websites.”
(PLACER COUNTY, Calif.) — A fast-moving wildfire scorching through Northern California has destroyed dozens of homes and is creating dangerous smoke conditions in regions farther north.
The Mosquito Fire has burned through nearly 49,000 acres and has gutted at least 25 single occupancy residences in El Dorado and Placer counties since it sparked on Sept. 6, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The fire, which is only 16% contained, could worsen as strong southwest winds bring drier air on Tuesday, fire officials said.
More than 11,000 people in the region have been ordered to evacuate. Both the El Dorado and Tahoe National Forests are closed because of the Mosquito Fire, officials said.
The fire is so intense that the smoke being emitted is producing hazardous air quality conditions for states farther north and east. A red flag warning in Wyoming has been issued due to winds gusting up to 30 mph and humidity levels as low as 10%.
Large plumes of smoke were seen covering the city of Reno, Nevada, in a time-lapse video posted to Twitter on Sunday by the National Weather Service’s Reno office. The smoke lingered in the Tahoe Basin through at least Monday, according to NWS.
More than 2,600 firefighters worked overnight Monday to build and strengthen control lines surrounding the largest portion of the blaze, according to Cal Fire.
“Firefighters are remaining vigilant on the southern edge of the fire to ensure that there is no threat of escape,” a bulletin for the Mosquito Fire stated.
Nationwide, more than 6.7 million acres of land have burned this year, with most of the fires concentrated in the Northwest, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. More than 43,000 of those fires were sparked by people, while just 6,341 were sparked by lightning, according to the Fire Center.
Bone-dry landscapes as a result of a decadeslong megadrought in the West is exacerbating the fire danger, causing dehydrated vegetation to act as fuel for the flames.
ABC News’ Marilyn Heck contributed to this report.
(LAS VEGAS) — A co-worker of the Nevada county official charged with murder in the stabbing death of a journalist investigating turmoil in his office called the reporter a “hero” to her and her colleagues.
Rita Reid spoke out in an interview aired Tuesday on ABC’s Good Morning America, praising slain journalist Jeff German of the Las Vegas Review-Journal for exposing the hostile work environment she said she and her colleagues endured under the leadership of Clark County Public Administrator Robert Telles, who is now charged with murder in German’s death.
“His death was absolutely devastating to myself and my coworkers, the people that he advocated for,” Reid said of German. “He was our hero.”
German, 69, was found fatally stabbed outside his home Sept. 3, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Telles blamed German’s reporting for ruining his career in politics and his marriage, prosecutors said.
Reid said that when she learned that German had been killed, “My first thought was Robert Telles.”
She alleged that Telles was responsible for the hostile work environment in her office that German exposed.
“He came into my office several times in a rage,” Reid alleged of Telles. “You saw stress every day in multiple employees and it just became worse and worse.”
She said she eventually became so appalled by Telles’ alleged behavior, that she and her co-workers approached German and blew the whistle on Telles.
“So, we decided that we would go public. We would try to talk to a journalist here in our community and see if somebody felt it was worthy of reporting,” Reid said. “I guess maybe I felt there might be an encounter one day or an altercation, a verbal altercation. But I could never have imagined this.”
Reid worked under Telles as an assistant public administrator and ran against him in the June Democratic primary, beating the embattled incumbent.
Telles’ defeat followed an investigation by German in the Review-Journal that exposed turmoil in his office and accusations of bullying, retaliation and an “inappropriate relationship” between Telles and a staffer.
Telles denied fostering a toxic work environment and claimed allegations that he was having an inappropriate relationship with an employee were not true.
“He (German) lost his life to make our office, our department, our government agency a better place and to provide better service for our community,” Reid said on GMA. “So, I mean we can never thank him enough.”
The 45-year-old Telles, who had been the Clark County Public Administrator since 2018, was formally charged on Monday with murder with a deadly weapon where the victim is 60 years of age or older.
Telles made a brief appearance in court Tuesday morning handcuffed and wearing jail-issued clothes. Judge William Jansen granted a motion filed by Telles’ attorney, Travis Shetler, to postpone the arraignment until Sept. 20.
Telles has yet to enter a plea to the charges. His attorney did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
In a criminal complaint, prosecutors alleged German’s killing was “wilful, deliberate and premeditated.”
Telles was arrested Wednesday following a SWAT operation at his home, officials said, after DNA evidence was found under German’s fingernails that linked him to the homicide, prosecutors said.
A judge ordered that Telles be held without bail in Clark County Jail after noting the steps Telles allegedly took to cover up his crimes, including casing German’s neighborhood for more than an hour, leaving his cellphone at home and dressing in disguise.
Police said the day before German’s death, Telles was seen approaching German’s home, where he allegedly had an altercation with him.
On the day of the slaying, Telles was dressed in disguise, which police described him as wearing a straw hat and reflective vest. Telles allegedly stabbed the reporter seven times before fleeing, prosecutors said.
Police focused on Telles because of his anger over stories written by German, officials said during a press conference Thursday. Then they found a vehicle outside Telles’ home that matched the suspect’s vehicle.
In an article published in May in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, German wrote: “The Clark County Public Administrator’s office has been mired in turmoil and internal dissension over the past two years, with allegations of emotional stress, bullying and favoritism leading to secret videotaping of the boss and a co-worker outside the office.”
He reported that “a half-dozen current and former employees interviewed by the Review-Journal are alleging the hostile work environment was fueled by the elected administrator of the office, Robert Telles, carrying on an ‘inappropriate relationship’ with a staffer that has harmed the office’s ability to deal with the public in overseeing the estates of those who have died.”
ABC News’ Alex Stone and Josh Margolin contributed to this report.
(DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.) — A “cruel prank” at a high school in Florida that created a panic in the cafeteria just a day after threatening graffiti was discovered in a bathroom stall has led authorities to press charges against the “pranksters” and recommend expulsion for all involved.
The troubling incident began last Thursday at Mainland High School in Daytona Beach, Florida, when the Daytona Beach Police Department were made aware of a specific threat that had been written on one of the bathroom stalls in the school which caused them to start an investigation.
“The school and DBPD reviewed video and identified two students that had entered into the bathroom when the graffiti was discovered,” the Daytona Beach Police Department said in a statement released on social media. “These students were interviewed by law enforcement and denied any involvement … After a thorough investigation, it was determined that no threat existed, however we added additional law enforcement presence as a precaution.”
But it was on Friday when police say that two different groups of students decided to “capitalize on the threat from the day before” by collaborating with each other to incite a mass panic within the school.
Authorities allege that the two groups can be seen on surveillance cameras inside the school working together to get into specific positions at different locations inside the cafeteria in carefully timed movements, police say.
“Several female students walk towards the school administrator laughing and smiling, all the way, up until they reached the administrator, at which point one of the females tells the administrator that someone had a gun,” allege the DBPD in their statement. “At this same time, one of the male kids, already positioned near the exit to the cafeteria, waited until the female student made the statement, then looked at her and ran out of the building, causing a large crowd to follow him.”
Furthermore, police say that video of the individuals who they suspect orchestrated the entire incident indicate that neither the male nor female students “ever observed a gun or flinched as you would expect when shots had just been fired.”
“At no time in the video, does anyone stand on a table and present a gun, or fire shots,” authorities confirmed.
The Daytona Beach Police Department said that they have been working non-stop on this investigation since the incident by tracking down leads, reviewing video, identifying people who could be involved and conducting interviews.
“We have identified everyone involved and have interviewed nearly all of them, and so far, when presented with the video (which clearly shows the area and everyone’s movements), no one has been able to point out the guy on the table, a gun, or the moment the shots would have been fired,” said the DBPD. “Stories have changed from seeing the guy, or a gun, to ‘they just heard there was one.’ This entire incident appears to have been a cruel prank by several students that has now gotten out of control due to internet trolls, miss-informed people and in some cases, people that are not even in Florida, or have kids that go to school at Mainland.”
In spite of this incident ultimately being a false alarm, police have confirmed that they will increase their law enforcement presence at the school.
Authorities did not name those involved with the incident or say how many people they were charging but did say that the “pranksters” have charges pending for making a false report concerning the use of firearms in a violent manner against a person or persons, which is a second-degree felony in the state of Florida.
The Daytona Beach Police Department also confirmed that expulsion from the school will be recommended for all involved.
Police concluded their statement by reminding people not to re-share posts on social media containing unverified information and asking witnesses with information to come directly to them rather than posting it on social media.
Said the Daytona Beach Police Department: “We cannot locate every single post online and this only delays our response and investigation.”
(NEW YORK) — Police fatally shot a Michigan man after he allegedly killed his wife and dog, and wounded his daughter, according to law enforcement officials.
Police responded to a call around 4 a.m. Sunday from a woman who had allegedly been shot by her dad, whom police identified as 53-year-old Igor Lanis, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office said.
After officers arrived at the home, they heard gunshots and began to approach the residence when the suspect emerged from the front door and began firing at them with a shotgun, police said.
A Walled Lake police officer and an Oakland County Sheriff’s deputy returned fire, striking and killing Lanis, according to authorities.
Officers said they saw the 25-year-old woman who called 911 at the front door “attempting to crawl from the home” before dragging her to safety, authorities said.
“She stated that her dad shot her and her mother,” the sheriff’s office wrote. “She was transported to an area hospital and rushed into emergency surgery.”
“Currently, the daughter has been stabilized, but obviously she has super traumatic injuries from a shotgun blast to her back and legs,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said during a news conference Monday.
Law enforcement officials searched the home and discovered the body of a 56-year-old woman who had been “shot multiple times in the back, and it appears that she was also attempting to flee out of the front door,” the sheriff’s office said.
The family dog had also been “shot multiple times and killed,” according to authorities.
The Oakland County Special Investigations Unit and the Walled Lake Police Department are conducting an investigation.
(LOS ANGELES) — Rapper PnB Rock, an up-and-coming hip-hop artist from Philadelphia, was fatally shot Monday afternoon during a robbery at Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles in South Los Angeles, police sources told ABC News. He was 30 years old.
Although the Los Angeles Police Department did not officially name the victim, sources at the LAPD told ABC News on Monday evening that the rapper, whose legal name is Rakim Hasheem Allen, was the victim seen in social media videos of the incident captured by witnesses.
The rapper was at the South LA eatery with his girlfriend, according to his social media account, where he shared that he was eating at Roscoe’s in a since-deleted message.
Police said they received a call about a shooting at 1:23 p.m. ET and found a male victim with gunshot wounds. He was transported to an area hospital. According to the LAPD, the victim and a woman were eating in the restaurant when they were approached by at least one suspect who pulled a firearm demanding property. The suspect shot the victim multiple times, removed property and left in a getaway car, according to police.
“What occurred was the victim, along with a female witness, were in this area eating at a restaurant when they were approached by at least one suspect, who brandished a firearm and demanded property from the victim,” LAPD Capt. Kelly Muniz said during a Monday afternoon press conference. “The suspect then shot the victim multiple times, and removed property and then left the location in a getaway car.”
Muniz said that multiple shots were fired, and that others on the scene were not injured.
When asked about reports that Allen shared his location on social media ahead of the robbery, Muniz said, “We always are gonna look into the social media,” but added that police couldn’t “verify” that yet.
Police said they are examining surveillance video to identify potential suspects.
Allen released a number of hits that charted on the Billboard Hot 100 and was featured in XXL Magazine’s Freshman Class of rappers to watch in 2017.
(LOS ANGELES) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Los Angeles Department of Public Health have confirmed the first death due to monkeypox in a Los Angeles County resident.
The resident was “severely immunocompromised” and had been hospitalized, officials said in a statement.
“Public Health sends heartfelt condolences and wishes of healing to the family and friends mourning the loss of their loved one,” their statement read.
No additional information will be made public for privacy and confidentiality reasons, officials added.
Last week, county officials were investigating the death of someone who had been diagnosed with monkeypox.
There are more than 21,000 cases of monkeypox in the U.S., according to LA County officials.
There are 4,302 positive monkeypox cases in the state — the largest number of cases in the country, California Department of Public Health data shows. About 1,692 people have tested positive for monkeypox in LA County, according to recent data.
In Texas, a Harris County resident who had been diagnosed with monkeypox died last month, state health officials said.
According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, the patient was severely immunocompromised and died at a county hospital.
Health officials have insisted the immunocompromised get vaccinated since they are at an elevated risk of severe disease.
Most cases in the current monkeypox outbreak have been detected in gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men. However, anyone exposed to the virus could become infected with monkeypox, officials said.
According to the CDC, monkeypox primarily spreads through continued skin-to-skin contact with infected people’s lesions or bodily fluids.
In addition to lesions, which can appear like pimples or blisters, the most common symptoms associated with monkeypox are swollen lymph nodes, fever, headache, fatigue and muscle aches.
ABC News’ Alex Stone, Marilyn Heck and Teddy Grant contributed to this report.
(PATERSON, N.J.) — Eight firefighters were injured when two fire trucks crashed into one another while responding to a fire in New Jersey, according to officials.
The trucks were responding to a fire at an electronic store when they collided at Broadway and Straight Street in Paterson, New Jersey, on Saturday, sending one truck crashing into the Golden Mango grocery store and the other into a tree, according to Paterson fire officials.
One firefighter remains in the hospital, a fire official told ABC News.
“Paterson’s Bravest are amazing individuals. Praying for their speedy recovery,” Jerry Speziale, Paterson’s public safety director of police and fire, tweeted.
The fire department in Hackensack, New Jersey, also arrived at the crash scene to evaluate the building and clear out debris, the department said on Facebook.
Riken Patel, the store manager of Golden Mango, told WABC that he was standing near the front of the store right before the crash happened.
“I was there one minute ago and I moved from there, and luckily I moved,” Patel told WABC.
(NEW YORK) — Three young children, one just 3 months old, died after police discovered them unresponsive early Monday on the beach at New York’s Coney Island and detained their mother for questioning, authorities said.
The grim discovery came at 4:42 a.m., about 90 minutes after police launched a frantic search for the children, whose 30-year-old mother was found soaking wet, barefoot and uncommunicative on the Coney Island Boardwalk, police officials said during a news conference.
Kenneth Corey, chief of department for the New York Police Department, said officers immediately performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the children, who were taken to Coney Island Hospital, where they were all pronounced dead. While autopsies will be conducted to determine the cause of death, police suspect the children died from drowning, officials said.
Corey described the children as a 7-year-old boy, a 4-year-old girl and a 3-month-old girl. Their names were not immediately released.
Corey said the incident unfolded around 1:40 a.m., when a relative called 911 and said she was concerned that the mother was going to harm the children.
“I believe she (the mother) had called them and made statements to that effect,” Corey said.
Officers went to the mother’s apartment in Coney Island, knocked on the door but got no answer, Corey said. While at the address, a man showed up and identified himself as the father of one of the children, who also expressed concern for the well-being of the children and told officers he believed the mother had taken them to the boardwalk.
Corey said police immediately launched a search of the mother’s apartment, which was unlocked, the boardwalk, the surrounding neighborhood and the beach. They found the mother on the boardwalk with other relatives, but her children were nowhere in sight.
“She was soaking wet, she was barefoot and she was not communicative to the officers,” Corey said.
He said the search for the children intensified with NYPD helicopters and boats being deployed.
Corey said the children were found unresponsive at the water’s edge near the boardwalk at W. 35th Street.
He said the mother was found about two miles from where police discovered her children.
Corey said the mother, whose name was not released, was detained for questioning, but has not been taken into custody.
(UVALDE, Texas) — “It all goes back to the day of the tragedy,” Javier Cazares, father of 9-year-old Jacklyn Cazares, who was killed in the Robb Elementary School mass shooting, told ABC News.
Javier Cazares is running as a write-in candidate for Uvalde County commissioner in Precinct 2.
“I’m a parent first and my main goal is to fight for what’s right; to do what needs to be done around here,” he said. “Not just for my daughter and her friends who passed, but also for her classmates who survived.”
A cook-off event to kick off Javier Cazares’ campaign took place on Saturday and welcomed community members and several of the self-proclaimed Angel Families who also lost loved ones during the massacre on May 24.
Nikki Cross, aunt and guardian of 10-year-old Uziyah Garcia who was also killed at Robb, said she’s confident that Javier Cazares will represent the interests of the families affected by the tragedy. “As a grieving father, he’s got a lot of passion for change,” Cross told ABC News. “He’s just what we need.”
Cazares’s family, among many others from Uvalde, have been to the Texas State Capitol in Austin and the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., to call for stricter gun control in the wake of the shooting.
Javier Cazares is a longtime gun owner and has never held political office. He’s advocating for what he calls “common sense gun laws,” such as expanding background checks to include juvenile records and lifting the purchasing age restriction to 21.
“After the Parkland shooting in Florida, they were able to change the [state] laws within three months,” he told ABC News. “I’ve never thought about politics, but I want to fight for change and speak for the unheard voices.”
At the cook-off event, the Cazareses set up a rock-painting station for supporters to make decorative rocks for Jacklyn’s rock garden.
Jazmin Cazares, Javier’s older daughter, was there supporting her dad. “It’s not just his kids he’s looking out for — it’s everyone’s kids,” she told ABC News. “Because you don’t want to lose your kid the way my parents have.”
Among other write-in candidates, Javier Cazares is running against incumbent Mariano Pargas Jr. — the acting city police chief on the day of the shooting. Pargas was placed on suspension after the Texas House committee investigating the tragedy released a damning 82-page report outlining the responding officers’ failures to protect students.
Pargas said he’s received support from community members despite the controversy, and hopes his 24-year tenure as county commissioner speaks for itself. “I hope people can remember the good things I’ve done for the community,” Pargas told ABC News. “I want to continue serving the community well.”
The commissioner said he’s proud of his work with low-income children, a community cleanup initiative and an ongoing road improvement plan.
“At the end of the day, it’s up to the people — what they want,” Pargas said. “If they want a change, by all means.”
Meanwhile, at the cook-off, Javier Cazares said Pargas is not doing enough to facilitate change in Uvalde. “I’ve lived in this district for 10 years, and in that time there hasn’t been any change. We have bad roads, bad street lighting, nothing for kids to play on,” he said.
Berlinda Arreola, victim Amerie Jo Garza’s step-grandmother, addressed the crowd: “He may not have as much money in his pocket, but he will work hard for us.”
“No one works harder than an underdog,” she said, “and don’t forget, underdogs have won the Super Bowl.”
Javier’s wife, Gloria Cazares, added, “This is personal for him, and for all of us.”
When asked about his opposition, Pargas said he wishes Javier Cazares and the other write-in candidates the best and offered support if he loses to one of them. “Anything that I can do to help them out once they get into office, I’d be more than glad to,” he added.
