Sandy Hook Hoax Case: Woman Pleads Not Guilty to Fundraising Fraud as Conspiracy Theory Video Goes Viral
A woman accused of running a Sandy Hook fundraising hoax has pleaded not guilty to federal charges being made against her.
The New York woman, Nouel Alba, denies that she made false statements to the government about an alleged scam tied to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
Alba appeared in a Bridgeport federal court briefly on Thursday, according to CBS, although she refused to make any public statements following the hearing.
The woman has been accused of collecting money from donors, attracting funds by claiming that she was an aunt of one of the children killed on the Newtown massacre in December.
Prosecutors have claimed that evidence clearly shows Alba was conducting a fraud. In documents revealed on Thursday, they showed various Facebook postings as well as text messages allegedly made by Alba to show her guilt. In one such message revealed in court, Alba is said to have claimed to have met and cried with President Barack Obama at a prayer service for the victims of the tragedy.
It has not been revealed how much Alba is accused of collecting in the alleged fraud, and more details are sure to emerge when the case develops in a few months time. Jury selection has been set for March 13.
Meanwhile, conspiracy theorists continue to voice their controversial beliefs on what transpired during the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
A 'truther' clip titled "The Sandy Hook Shooting - Fully Exposed" has gone viral on the Internet with over 10 million views in less than two weeks.
The 30 minute video was posted on YouTube by a user named ThinkOutsideTheTV. The video used coverage of the shooting to point out what the conspiracy theorists believe to be evidence of an apparent hoax at Sandy Hook.
The footage began with a disclaimer that read, "This is a simple, logical video. No aliens, holograms [sic], rituals or anything like that, just facts."
"The video begins with something that really everybody can accept -- 'We are just raising questions.The whole subject is framed like, 'Don't look at us, we're not saying this crazy stuff, we're just asking questions.' All they offer are tantalizing 'could be's," author of "Media Mythmakers" Benjamin Radford told the The Huffington Post.
David Mikkelson, who is the founder of the myth-squashing website Snopes, supported Radford's thoughts on the controversial video's errors:
"In any kind of disaster or tragedy like this, if you go through things with a fine-toothed comb, you will find a number of contradictory statements. Of course, most of them are cleared up within a few days of the initial reporting, but it's not something you're going to see in these [conspiracy] videos."
The theorists were quick to say that the parents of the shooting victims didn't express an acceptable amount of grief, but the data they used wasn't sufficient enough to completely support their beliefs, stated Robert Blaskiewicz, writer for Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.
By using only certain portions of the wide range of news data as evidence to those claims is "beneath worthless and is actually misleading. Doing that means ignoring vast quantities of evidence that doesn't support their conclusion," he stated.
Viewers who watched the video complained about the insensitivity of the 'truther' clip.
One viewer commented: "Learn to investigate proper, you guys pull "facts" out of your a** based on anecdotal evidence and some youtube video surfing. Get f****** real, you're dealing with real people who lost their kids here, you better make sure your sh*t is founded before claiming such romanticized "omg the govnmt. is evil!", and not this BULL****"
"To be honest, you really don't need to go on the site, you just need something called common sense. Family member not shedding tears on camera means they were in on it? How about the times they are off camera and are grieving in unimaginable pain of what they are going through? Even if truthers hate the media, they act exactly like them," another user wrote.
The video can be seen below but viewers are advised to view at their own discretion due to its potentially offensive material.
