A Florida man accused of harassing relatives of victims killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, was arrested on a related misdemeanor charge Monday.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office in Florida said Wolfgang Halbig, 73, faces one count of possessing the personal information of another person — namely Leonard Pozner, whose 6-year-old son was slain at Sandy Hook.
He was released within hours of his arrest after posting a $5,000 bond and scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 24.
Mr. Halbig, a former Florida state trooper and school administrator, has for years spread conspiracy theories involving the Sandy Hook shooting that claimed the lives of 20 students and six staff members.
He has accordingly been sued by several families who lost relatives at Sandy Hook, including a multimillion-dollar defamation case in Connecticut state Supreme Court.
Ellory Osterberg, a detective with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, alleged in an affidavit for his arrest that Mr. Halbig has “continued to harass” relatives of Sandy Hook victims as recently as September.
“Halbig has obtained a copy of victim Pozner’s personal identification information, to include his social security number and date of birth, and has released it to hundreds of people,” the detective wrote. “Pozner has had to take the necessary steps to protect his personal credit information, which causes him to have to go through number different avenues to prevent fraudulent activity.”
Reached by phone Tuesday by The Washington Times, Mr. Halbig denied being a conspiracy theorist and described the criminal allegation brought against him as “just as ridiculous as you can get.”
“I have an attorney and naturally [I’m] going to fight it,” Mr. Halbig said of the charge.
He also described Mr. Pozner as “the father of a child who supposedly died at Sandy Hook,” suggesting he has not yet accepted the facts involving the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.
Mr. Halbig also pointed to a 2015 civil suit brought against him in Lake County by Mr. Pozner that similarly accused him of circulating the plaintiff’s personal information but was eventually dropped.
“He had every opportunity in front of a jury to finally get rid of Wolfgang Halbig by telling the jury how big of a liar, a fraud, a cheat that I am,” Mr. Halbig told The Times. “And I said if he can prove it, I would go as quickly as I can to the nearest mental health hospital.”
Attempts to reach Mr. Pozner for comment were not immediately successful.
In a statement published by NBC News, Mr. Pozner called Mr. Halbig a “prolific hoaxer” and said he was “gratified” to hear he been arrested.
“He used my personal information to incentivize others to terrorize us and monetize his hate. The result has been an ongoing nightmare for myself and other families of Sandy Hook victims,” Mr. Pozner said.
Mr. Halbig faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison if convicted, NBC reported.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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