Aurora victims harassed by conspiracy theorists

It's gotten so bad that prosecutors have asked the court to redact victims' names

BY ALEX SEITZ-WALD

It’s not just people in Newtown, Conn., who are being harassed by conspiracy theorists. In Aurora, Colo., things have gotten so bad that prosecutors this week requested that the names of victims’ families be redacted from future court documents to spare them from “relentless contacts by proponents of purported ‘conspiracies.’”

In a document filed with the Arapahoe County District Court Tuesday, Deputy District Attorney George Brauchler wrote that conspiracy theorists “have contacted victims in this case, some of whom have even gone so far as to recruit other members of the public to contact the victims and to publicly post maps with the home addresses and phone numbers of the victims on various social media sites.”

The document said that some victims and their families “have expressed concerns for their privacy, and personal safety,” and warned the harassment could “adversely affect the administration of justice in this case” because many of the targets are witnesses.

Jordan Ghawi, a 26-year-old firefighter and paramedic whose sister was killed in the shooting, explained to Salon how the harassment started. “I think it started with me because my presence online is a little further out there than the rest of the families,” he said, noting his active Twitter feed and website detailing his adventures skydiving and traveling.

The first email came from a man asking, “have you ever seen your sister’s body?” He ignored it. When a second email came, Ghawi replied, saying that he wasn’t going to entertain the man’s questions, but accidentally left his phone number in his email’s signature field. Then the phone calls started: “Did you see her body? It didn’t happen, it was a government coverup, etc., etc.

“From there, it went to threatening emails that included death threats … he did threaten my life at one point,” Ghawi explained. The emailer, who Ghawi later learned had been investigated by authorities in two other states and by federal law enforcement for, among other things, harassing the wife of the pilot of Flight 93, also had conspiracy theories about 9/11 and moon bases.

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http://www.salon.com/2013/02/08/aurora_victims_harassed_by_conspiracy_theorists/