Tenacious Sandy Hook Researcher Wins One in Court

American Free Press – by Dave Gahary

TAVARES, Fla.—As the five-year anniversary of one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history approached, this small city in central Florida—located 1,144 miles from Newtown, Conn.—recently played host to the ongoing drama around whether or not the Dec. 14, 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting took place as the government says it did.

Wolfgang W. Halbig, who is convinced no children were killed at Sandy Hook, prevailed in a lawsuit brought against him by the father—Leonard Pozner—of one of the children murdered by 20-year-old Adam Lanza. Halbig achieved mass notoriety when an interview that this reporter had conducted with him revealed that Halbig had been visited by two homicide detectives from his local sheriff’s office, who asked him to stop asking questions about the shooting.  

Halbig, a former Florida State Trooper and school safety consultant, is best known for his request to have his “16 simple questions” about the event answered by calling and emailing multiple agencies as well as by filing dozens of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

Pozner brought the suit against Halbig when Halbig revealed on his website the contents of a FOIA request, which included some of Pozner’s personal information.

This reporter attended the Nov. 7 hearing in Tavares and conducted an exclusive interview with Halbig’s attorney, Caleb Payne, who discussed a bit of his client’s history vis-à-vis Sandy Hook and the details of the case.

American Free Press asked him how he got hooked up with Halbig.

“I jumped at the chance to represent Wolf in this case because to me it’s a very clear First Amendment violation,” he said. “The First Amendment is something that is integral to our society and the ability for people in the media and the press to be able to ask questions and keep the rest of the government in check.”

Payne explained how Pozner came to sue Halbig. In a disturbing turn of events, a symptom of the police state warned about by John W. Whitehead in his A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, state agents simply showed up at his house unannounced, wanting to rifle through Halbig’s personal belongings just for asking some questions.

“Mr. Halbig was in his home when some agents with the state showed up and wanted to go through his records,” Caleb explained. “He asked what this was about, and they stated that someone had filed a complaint with the state attorney here, Pam Bondi. So Mr. Halbig then filed a FOIA request to get that [complaint] from Ms. Bondi’s office. He received it, and he put it on the web.”

The FOIA contained Pozner’s mailing address, a post office box, but that was enough for him to hire a lawyer. In response, Halbig not only removed the personal information—which he wasn’t required to do—but also deactivated his website, sandyhookjustice.com. Pozner, however, continued to harass Halbig.

The judge ordered Pozner to be at the next hearing and produce the answers required via discovery—requests for answers to interrogatories, production of documents, and depositions.

The chance to question Pozner under the watchful eye of a video camera never arrived, however, as Pozner dismissed his complaint the afternoon he was required to provide the discovery answers, leaving Halbig with a big legal bill and a shuttered website. Halbig says he will countersue for attorney’s fees and costs.

Dave Gahary, a former submariner in the U.S. Navy, prevailed in a suit brought by the New York Stock Exchange in an attempt to silence him. Dave is the producer of an upcoming full-length feature film about the attack on the USS Liberty. See erasingtheliberty.com for more information and to get the new book on which the movie will be based, Erasing the Liberty.

American Free Press