Wolfgang Halbig, a Florida man who for years has harassed the parents of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, claiming it never occurred, was arrested Monday by Lake County deputy sheriffs on charges that he was in possession of another person’s identification.
Halbig of Sorrento was released after posting $5,000 bail nearly two hours after he was booked into the Lake County Jail at 3:18 a.m., according to county jail records. He is charged with a first-degree misdemeanor, which carries a maximum penalty of up to a year in prison.
Credit: LAKE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE
Credit: LAKE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE
Halbig, 73, gained national notoriety for his dark fixation on whether the Dec. 14, 2012, mass shooting that left 20 first graders and six adults dead at the elementary school in Newtown, Conn., happened or was the result of a wicked government conspiracy.
Halbig is also named in several defamation lawsuits filed by the victims’ families. Right-wing radio host Alex Jones said Halbig fed him conspiracy theories — including more than 4,000 emails over several years — that the mass shooting was staged by the federal government as a way to bring forth more gun control legislation.
Halbig has also claimed the child victims were crisis actors, and he has requested documents that include gruesome photos of the shooting scene.
In recent months, Halbig has claimed the Pulse nightclub shooting in June 2016 that killed 49 people and wounded 53 people in Orlando also never occurred.
According to an arrest affidavit, Halbig repeatedly emailed several people and law enforcement agencies the Social Security number, birth date and other information of Leonard Pozner, whose 6-year-old son, Noah, died at Sandy Hook.
Pozner reported to sheriff officials that since Feb. 18, 2018, Halbig has continued to harass him over the internet.
Pozner filed a lawsuit against Halbig in 2015 in Lake County and got an injunction against Halbig requiring him to remove Pozner’s address, phone number and email address from his website.
Halbig, who formerly worked for the Lake County School District, made an unsuccessful run for a county commission seat in 2010. He also worked as a security director for Seminole County schools in the mid-1990s.
As Halbig’s obsession with the Sandy Hook shooting grew over the years, Lake County deputies were called to his home on Hawks Lane Run several times.
He often claimed he was being “cyberstalked” on the internet, that he was threatened physically and that law enforcement officers in plainclothes came to his home to demand that he stop inquiring about the Sandy Hook shooting, according to Sheriff’s Office incident reports.
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