5 August 2022, Travis County District Court, Texas, USA
Transcript slightly edited to remove courtroom back and forth
Judge Maya Gamble: Raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear or affirm, under penalty of perjury, that all the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Scarlett Lewis: I do.
Judge Maya Gamble: Thank you so much ma'am. Come have a seat in the witness chair and I know you've heard me say it a bunch of times: there's water, there's tissues, we need to be able to hear you so please speak into the microphone, let the lawyers ask their question and then answer. Answer out loud and in words. Can you do that for me?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes.
Judge Maya Gamble: Thank you so much. You may begin.
Mark Bankston (Lawyer for Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis): Thank you. Ms. Lewis, if you would please introduce yourself to the jury.
Scarlett Lewis: My name's Scarlett Lewis and I am first and foremost the mom of two boys: Jesse and his surviving brother, and I'm the founder of the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement.
Mark Bankston: We're going to talk about that in a little bit. Before we do though, I would like for you to tell us, please, where you were when you first became aware of this disgusting conspiracy, that Jesse's murder didn't happen.
Scarlett Lewis: After the firehouse, the firehouse is where we congregated to find out if Jesse was coming back or not, I actually went to my mom's house. I'm a single mom and I didn't want to go back to the house that I had raised Jesse in. So, I went back to my mom's house who lives nearby, and all my family and friends since high school flew in. So, it was a crowded house and
I was in shock and just trying to maintain, but I do remember that there was some hushed whispering going around about people talking about something and they didn't want me to know. So, of course, I wanted to know and they were telling me that there was someone saying that the tragedy hadn't happened which was so crazy to me because I was living it.
Mark Bankston: Is this the first time you became aware of Alex Jones and his associates?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes.
Mark Bankston: Tell me when the first time it is that you became aware that this general conspiracy, this disgusting web of lies, began to spin about your son's murder and Sandy Hook in general.
Scarlett: Well, other than that first time, I guess it would be a couple of months later when the third and fourth grade choir from the Sandy Hook Elementary School had been invited to the Super Bowl to sing, I think America the Beautiful with Jennifer Hudson, and such a beautiful invite for them and kind of exciting experience after what they've been through. They had been in the Sandy Hook Elementary School at the time of the shooting so they're considered survivors and I knew that they were going down and I watched them and then I saw the picture with the overlay of the- afterwards- circulating with the kid’s names on them, Jesse being left front.
Mark Bankston: The picture that you're talking about, the Super Bowl, you heard about this picture before seeing it?
Scarlett Lewis: I heard about it before seeing it. I can't remember. I can't remember. I don't know. Things circulated back then.
Mark Bankston:What was your understanding about this, and how did it make you feel?
Scarlett Lewis: It was deeply unsettling what people were saying about the December 14th shooting, that it didn't happen, that these children from the Sandy Hook School were actually the victims alive, older. It was deeply unsettling to me because it's so out of touch with reality that it's scary. It’s scary to think about who would think like this.
Mark Bankston: Sure. Did you understand this picture, this conspiracy here, to be coming from Alex Jones? Pushed by Alex Jones?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Mark Bankston: I want to take you back even before this. Was there anything about your understanding or, did you learn, was Jesse's wake interrupted in any way by this conspiracy? This web of lies?
Scarlett Lewis: Yeah, so, Jesse was murdered on a Friday and the following Wednesday we had a wake for him at a local funeral home and people were lined up outside and then coming in. We had an open casket and we were blessed to be able to have an open casket because of the lack of damage done to the body. So, people would walk in, they would sign something, they would walk past the casket, and then to me. And so I'm just meeting people as they're coming through and I remember looking up and seeing the Hell's Angels there and I thought well at the time I was in shock and so I just thought, you know, it was surreal anyway, but then I found out later that they were there to, ironically, keep the peace which was also surreal to me, to make sure that there wasn't a disturbance at the wake.
Mark Bankston: Your understanding is that this came from the beginning of this conspiracy and web of lies that Jones is pushing?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes.
Mark Bankston: I want to talk to you a bit about other encounters that you've had with the public as it concerns this web of lies, what Jones is pushing. Have you received, I'm not going to go into every one of them, but have you received emails, threats, death threats and the like as it concerns this?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Mark Bankston: I want to talk to you a little bit about this email. It first says, “Neil Heslin is not Jesse's dad unless you can send me his birth certificate.” How did that make you feel?
Scarlett Lewis: It's not the only time that Jesse and his birth certificate have been questioned. It was deeply unsettling if you read the rest of the email. It's pulling names from different parts of my life: all my family, my friends, previous relationships. It's deeply unsettling
Mark Bankston: What is it like having people associated, or Jones and his associates, asking you for birth certificates? How does that make you feel?
Scarlett Lewis: I remember a different email asking me for Jesse's birth certificate and I'd actually been on the phone with a school in Texas who had had a child that had died by suicide because of continuous bullying and I sat down, I opened the email, and I read that. They were asking me to come in and talk and help their student body, and I sat down, I opened up the email, and I thought, I have a connection with that little boy. That's how it made me feel.
Mark Bankston: Go on down this page. I'm going to read something for you, and I'm going to apologize first because I know that this must be tricky. It says, “I have been avoiding Scarlett because I find her appalling and disgusting. If the Arkansas Democrat published a spin article on Scarlett and her beginnings in Fayetteville, then further research is warranted into this woman's past and her extended family. We know she is a fraud, but how deep it goes we may not know yet.” What is it like reading those words after what you've gone through?
Scarlett Lewis: ---Deeply unsettling--- The Arkansas Democrat Gazette was actually doing an article on me because I was there speaking in schools about a movement that I started in my son's honor and I'm actually from Arkansas and so it was deeply deeply deeply upsetting and then also upsetting that you have people that are thinking that of you: appalling and disgusting. It's in your face. It's scary.
Mark Bankston: How does this make you feel as it concerns your own security and safety?
Scarlett Lewis: I feel compromised. I mean, you can look at this email and you see that they have done research on me and I guess through social media and maybe websites to do searches on people they have all the different names that I've ever used that I use now, they have people that they've dragged out from my past. It's, I know I'm using this word a lot, but it's deeply unsettling to your very core.
Mark Bankston: You reference research that they're doing. Let's look at the next page, page 3.
At the top of the page, it reads, “Neil Heslin, 57, reportedly, is the father of Jesse Mccord
Lewis. Not very likely. Perhaps JT stands for Jordan Trent.” and then there is a picture of you with other people in your family. How does this make you feel? Explain this for us please.
Scarlett Lewis: Well I'll go back to the previous page for a second, and it says that I attended in 1984. So, I was in high school at a concert and I did, but that's not my name and yeah those are the names of my brothers. So, it definitely makes me feel victimized and it's not just me. It's not just my son. It's interesting, the ripple effect. This is now my entire family. It's my friends. It's people that I've known in my past. It goes far beyond just me and Jesse and my surviving son.
Mark Bankston: The next page. Having pictures sent to you by someone you don't know who is clearly mentally unstable, what does that do to your psyche? To your trust in the outside world?
Scarlett Lewis: I mean this is supposed to be me, but it's not. It's actually another victim's family.
Supposedly, they think it's me. It's different than losing a son, having a son murdered. We didn't lose him. He was murdered. It's different than having a son murdered because, as shocking as that was, that happens. People go through that, but then being a victim's parent and having someone victimize you in a different way, and you try to process the death of a child, and people have done that, but you can't process this. You can't make sense out of nonsense.
Mark Bankston: This is one of many emails you have received, is that fair?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Mark Bankston: Is this representative of the other emails the other communications that you have received?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Mark Bankston: Again, I'm not going to talk about every one of them, but I want to talk about a few others. Plaintiff's exhibit 128. Does this refresh your recollection of questions further that were sent to you from this Wolfgang Halbig? That Alex Jones over and over again referred to on his radio show?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Mark Bankston: 128 if we could please, put that up, Melissa? I want to read the bottom of it, “a criminal faction is manipulating your thoughts and feelings by withholding information regarding the Sandy Hook school shooting of December 14, 2012. My friends and I want specific and complete answers to the following questions. We would be pleased if you too would be curious enough to desire answers to these 51 questions.” This is something that was sent to you?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Mark Bankston: Does it reopen the wounds that were created as a result of your grief?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Mark Bankston: Does it make them difficult to heal?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Mark Bankston: Tell us about that.
Scarlett Lewis: Healing from having a child murdered is possible. It's a life-long life-long journey. It's like losing a limb, and you know there's phantom pains-- evidently I don't know, but when you lose a limb, you always feel it. It’s like it's always there because you're so used to having it. You should have it and you probably reach out for something with a hand and that's how I kind of compare losing a child like that. He should be here and he's not, but it's something that you can process. This, I think-- the fear and anxiety and unsafeness -- that this -- that all of these-- this just continuous and it doesn't even have to be that many. It's just, you know, this element that's always in the background of fear keeps you from keeps me from healing. It definitely -- it definitely negatively impacts the healing process.
Mark Bankston: Ms. Lewis, by the way, where do you live?
Scarlett Lewis: I live in San Diego.
Mark Bankston: Do you live in the same house that you live in with Jesse?
Scarlett Lewis: I do.
Mark Bankston: And have you had people come to that house make you feel unsafe there because of these lies and conspiracy that Jones has been pushing?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Mark Bankston: Tell us about that.
Scarlett Lewis: There was a Christmas and we usually now go over my Mom's for Christmas because I don't put up a tree anymore, but it was Christmas morning and I had a car drive into my driveway and a man got out and started taking pictures and so I walked outside and I said excuse me and he took pictures and then got back in his car and drove away. Unsettling.
Mark Bankston: Do you feel unsafe at your own house?
Scarlett Lewis: I have, yes.
Mark Bankston: We heard briefly -- I just need to address it-- we heard briefly that you own a gun at your house. Is that because of the safety fears that you have?
Scarlet Lewis: Yes
Mark Bankston: If you'd like to explain a little further…
Scarlet Lewis: I'm a single mother and responsible for the safety of both of my boys and I was not able to keep one of them safe and so I'm going to keep my surviving son safe. You know, you can tell by these emails that the people writing them are not grounded in reality and that is deeply concerning. And you can tell, I could tell, by the two people that testified from Infowars as well as Alex Jones that they don't care. That's also deeply unsettling.
Mark Bankston: When Infowars… I think you've seen on the screen and others from Infowars would come to town -- and Sandy-- and Newtown -- The Sandy Hook community, would you hear about it?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Mark Bankston: How?
Scarlett Lewis: The mayor, at the time, would send out an email to the parents advising us of the fact that they were coming to town telling us to stay in our homes, stay safe, just be aware, and so I would.
Mark Bankston: How did it make you feel when someone told you that these people were coming into town knowing what they were saying?
Scarlett Lewis: It was frightening. You didn't know what to expect. You didn't know what they were going to do. They would show up at different places, make outlandish allegations and accusations and threats, and you felt limited by that.
Mark Bankston: Are you aware of other parents in the community living these same nightmares and death threats that you're talking about?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Mark Bankston: And does knowledge of what others in that community who have lost a child affect how you feel and go about your day?
Scarlett Lewis: Absolutely, I mean we're almost like a family. I mean we are bonded forever, the 26 families, by what we've been through. So, if something happens to one of them, we hear about it, and it is like it's happening to us.
Mark Bankston: Do you share with them what has happened to you in that same regard for that same reason?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Mark Bankston: There are death threats that you're aware of to other people that you believe apply to you as well?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Mark Bankston: Are you aware of a particular person, her name is Lucy Richards?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Mark Bankston: What is your awareness and understanding of who Lucy Richards is?
Scarlett Lewis: Lucy Richards is a woman who made threats to the Pozner family, both Veronique and Lenny on their voicemails and she was later arrested and jailed for those death threats.
Mark Bankston: Are you aware that one of the punishments that she was given is she couldn't listen to the Alex Jones show?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes, I am aware of that.
Mark Bankston: And knowing that someone was punished and that they're not allowed to listen to the Alex Jones show, how does that affect the way you react to further harassment from his show?
Scarlett Lewis: You see the type of-- some of the people that listen to his show and take everything that he says at face value.
Mark Bankston: You have heard the actual death threats from Ms. Richards?
Scarlett Lewis: I have.
Mark Bankston: Would hearing one of those death threats better help us to understand how you receive them and the anxiety that's given to you?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Voicemail Recording: “What are you going to do about it? You should do absolutely nothing. You're a loser. You're going to run. C***. And what are you going to do about it? You should do absolutely nothing. You're a loser. You're going to rot in hell the way you just think death you're going to die. Death is coming real soon, mother f*****. You're going to die.
Mark Bankston: The fear and anxiety that comes from this, can you please explain that to us?
Scarlett Lewis: It's fear. Fear for your life, but I guess it's not even mostly fear for mine. It's fear for my surviving son. It's fear for the other people that have been brought into this: my family and friends. It paints everything. I paint and I've described it. It just it's one more layer you you have a painting and then your son is murdered and that's a varnish on it and then this is another varnish, a darker varnish on top of all of that. It's just with you all the time. It's just a thought in your head all the time.
Mark Bankston: Ms. Lewis, can we continue what we were talking about earlier?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Mark Bankston: Okay, before we do that though, are you pleased that you at least now finally get to look this man in the eye?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Mark Bankston: Then I would like to put some context to what we have spoken about before we continue, okay? As if you would bring up plaintiff’s exhibit 3: Photograph of Jesse? Jessie Lewis, your son, tell us about him.
Scarlett Lewis: I like to share the story of when Jesse was born, and Neil shared a little bit of this earlier, but he was 11 pounds. So, he was a c-section, and the first time that I saw him I actually walked to the nursery and there were all these nurses gathered around the window taking pictures and I asked them, “What are you taking pictures of? And they said, “There's this enormous baby and he's trying to crawl out of his bassinet!” So, he had literally crawled down to the bottom and he was trying to get out and I like to share that story because that's how he was his entire life. He was larger than life. He was loud. He was bouncing off the walls. That's my first memory.
Mark Bankston: Tell us more about Jesse. How was his personality?
Scarlett Lewis: He was very bold -- he was very bold for his age. He would walk up to a group of people and he'd introduce himself. A group of men, “Hi, my name is Jesse Lewis! What's your name?” He was very protective of his family and I have a little farm. He would put on an army helmet that my friend had given him, and he would, we called it patrolling. He would walk along the walls, all the corners, and then wait for people to come in at the gate.
Mark Bankston: And what was some of the-- let me ask it this way, what is your understanding of Jesse's last day?
Scarlett Lewis: So, Jesse is actually known for that, during his final few moments, the shooter came into -- He shot his way through the glass doors of Sandy Hook Elementary School and then he made a left and he shot his principal and guidance counsellor. They were coming out of a meeting on the first door on the right of the hallway. Now he, Adam Lanza, had been to this school. So, he knew the layout. He knew that this was the first grade hallway and so they heard the gunfire. They came out of the room. They were murdered right outside of Jesse's classroom and then he made a left into the classroom door and was firing adult height and hit his teacher who he was standing right in front of. Then his gun either jammed or ran out of bullets and during the short delay he actually stood up to the shooter and he saved nine of his classmates' lives before losing his own. For that act of bravery he was actually given a commander-in-chief funeral, reserved for heads of state and returning war heroes, and Jesse was actually considered a war hero because his first grade classroom was a literal war zone.
Mark Bankston: This man through his show and his lies has denied the very existence of your son, Jesse Lewis. How does it make you feel being able to come in today and tell him to his face your story?
Scarlett Lewis: I wanted to tell you to your face because I wanted you to know that I am a mother first and foremost and I know that you're a father and my son existed. You're still on your show, today, implying that I'm an actress, that I'm deep state. You have this week and I don't understand. Truth-- truth is so vital to our world. Truth is what we base our reality on, and we have to agree on that to have a civil society. Sandy Hook is a hard truth- hard truth. Nobody would want to ever believe that 26 kids could be murdered. Nobody would ever want to believe that. I understand people not wanting to believe that, actually. I don't want to believe it, but I've, since that day, dedicated my life to keeping kids safe. It's our responsibility. I used to think it was the school's responsibility. It's actually our responsibility and I've dedicated my life to that, and having a quarter of Americans doubt that Sandy Hook happened or doubt the facts around Sandy Hook is not conducive to keeping our kids safe. It's not and it's our responsibility to keep our kids safe. This happened almost 10 years ago. We've had over 350 school shootings since then. We have to keep our kids safe. Jesse was real. I am a real mom. There's nothing out there, nothing. There's records of Jesse's birth, of me. I mean I have a history and there's nothing that you could have found because it doesn't exist. That I'm deep state. It's just not true. I know you know that. That's the problem. I know you know that and you keep saying it. You keep saying it, why? Why? For money? Because you've made a lot of money while you've said it. I know you're-- I mean -- I know you believe me and yet you're gonna leave this courthouse and you're gonna say it again on your show. You're saying, “No.” You just did it.
Mark Bankston: Over the break, Ms. Lewis, did you have an opportunity to hear what Mr. Jones had said on his show about what Mr. Heslin was? Or about Mr. Heslin and his testimony?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Mark Bankston: Ms. Lewis, You have a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress do you not?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Mark Bankston: And when this man says bad things and lies about your son's father, Mr. Heslin how does that affect you?
Scarlett Lewis: It affects me because that is the father of my son. That is, you know, we're bonded forever through that connection, through Jesse, through Jesse's spirit and that that impacts me. If you have the capacity to put yourself in my shoes. Do you have empathy? because the two people that work for you don't seem to have empathy or care. They really don't. I was looking for some caring. I did not see it. Do you?
Mark Bankston: Ms. Lewis, does it continue to cause you emotional distress when you hear this man peddle the thought that you are in some way or another an actor, or controlled by other people, or like thoughts?
Scarlett Lewis: Or that Sandy Hook was a total hoax, that it was a false flag, that it never happened, that there were no children killed? And you know that's not true. You know that's not true, but when you say those things there's a fringe of society that believe you that are actually dangerous.
Mark Bankston: The video that you saw over break from Mr. Jones’s website radio show, Infowars, did that cause you or affect you emotionally further?
Scarlett Lewis: Absolutely
Mark Bankston: And are you aware that the video was created during or shortly after Mr. Heslin's testimony?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Mark Bankston: Okay, And did that video come from the Infowars website?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Mark Bankston: And did you personally see that the video came from the Infowars website?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Alex Jones Recording Plays: I thought it was an act when I saw some of the stuff on TV just because he came off as so- let's just say he's a nice man and he's not an actor. He is being manipulated by some very bad people, but I'll just say, because I got to be honest, he's slow, okay? And his ex-wife is not. I don't think he's stupid. I'm just saying he's … I've got family members that are really smart in a lot of ways, but they're just real kind of quiet and have this way about ‘em and they move a different pace like they're fast in some ways and slow in others and he's, I mean. I think Heslin acts like somebody on the spectrum. That makes me feel like an even bigger jerk, but when I saw him, I was like there's something about this guy that doesn't look-- and now that I've been around him for over a week, I'm like okay. Now, I know. Folks, I don't have some calculated point just bringing that up here. It's just that I'm around these people, and I'm looking at it, and I'm watching what's being said, and what's going on, and it really then makes it clear what happened.
Mark Bankston: How does it make you feel knowing that that was said today by this man on his radio show while Jesse's father was testifying in that same seat you're sitting in?
Scarlett Lewis: I've had a hard time finding words today. It makes me feel astounded in a bad way. It's horrific, horrific, horrific.
Mark Bankston: Tell us, if you would please, one of your last memories of Jessie.
Scarlett Lewis: So, I'm a single mom and I work full time and so mornings are hectic with two boys getting them out the door. Neil was picking up Jesse that morning, and so I bundled him up, brought him outside, walked him outside to meet Neil, and we were gonna make gingerbread houses with him with their class at 2 pm that day. I worked a lot and so I had taken the afternoon off that day and so Neil and I were finalizing the -- you know, “I'll meet you at the school for the gingerbread houses” and I turned around to give Jesse a hug and I noticed that he had written in the frost on the side of my car, this was Connecticut, December 14th is very cold,
“I love you” with his fingernail in the frost and he’d drawn hearts in all my windows and I knew that that was one of life's special moments and so I told him, “even though,” running late, “he's late, stay right here I'm gonna go get my cell phone.” I ran into the house, got my cell phone, came back out. I remember taking him by the shoulders positioning him so he'd be right by his message, taking a picture. I remember it was overexposed, so I deleted it and then I took another picture and then I took a close-up picture of the I love you and then I gave him a hug and sent him off to school. That was the last picture that was ever taken of him and that was the last time I ever saw him.
Mark Bankston: Is Jesse honored for his heroism that day?
Scarlett Lewis: He was. He was honored for his heroism at his funeral. He was given a commander-in-chief funeral and my last memory really is driving him to the grave site from where we held the funeral at a church to the actual gravesite graveyard. I was in a car behind the hearse that contained the casket and I was in the car with my son and a couple other family members and we had, I guess it's called a cavalcade, multiple motorcycles in full uniform were in front of us and behind us. Lots of first responders showed up from multiple different states to honor his bravery. When we approached an intersection, the back would come up to the front and they would block off the intersection and cars, this line of cars, pulled over to the side. People had gotten out of the cars. They were kneeling on the ground praying-- saluting for his bravery and that's a special memory.
Mark Bankston: How does this man's lies interrupt those memories?
Scarlett Lewis: I mean because then Alex gets on there and says that it didn't happen. That it was a false flag. That there were no kids killed and you cater those to those people that are not grounded in reality. You're not telling the truth. You know the truth, as a father, and as someone that said they researched Sandy Hook and there was lots of things on there and so to come on and say that Jesse never existed, that it was a hoax, that it was a hoax. I know there are hoaxes that are out there but this was an incredibly real event and I lived it and it's unbelievable that you would continue to say that it didn't happen.
Mark Bankston: How does it affect your breathing process? What a mother has to go through when she loses a son?
Scarlett Lewis: Having a six-year-old son shot in the forehead in his first grade classroom is unbearable. Unbearable. You don't think you're going to survive, but there are people that have and then to have someone on top of that perpetuate a lie. A lie! That it was a hoax, that it didn't happen, it was a false flag, that I'm an actress. Then you get on and you say, “Oh, sorry but I know actresses when I see them.” Do you think I'm an actress?
Alex Jones: No, I don’t think you’re an actress.
Scarlett Lewis: I don't think you understand the fear that you perpetuate to not just the victims' families, all of us and others, but our family, our friends, every survivor from that school. The ripple effect is enormous because of the platform that you have and the fear that comes from that, the fear stops the healing of and the mourning process, because you're afraid. I don't think the two can happen at once. I don't think that you can heal from the loss of your child and be afraid at the same time. The fear stops everything.
Mark Bankston: How do you recover from someone saying your child wasn't murdered?
Scarlett Lewis: I don't think you can recover. I don't think you do recover unless it stops, unless it's retracted, unless there's accountability and responsibility and that hasn't happened.
Mark Bankston: What you've seen today, the video today, what does that do to your hope for this man's accountability and responsibility for it?
Scarlett Lewis: I don't understand. I don't understand. I can't. I cannot even make sense that's one of the problems. I can't make sense out of nonsense out of why you would say it didn't happen. it's not happening, I'm an actress, I'm part of the deep state, it's a hoax it was a false flag, it never happened, there were never any children. I don't understand. Yeah, I'm stuck.
Mark Bankston: One of the things that you have done, Ms Lewis, to aid in your recovery is the Choose Love Movement.
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Mark Bankston: If you could, tell us what the Choose Love Movement is.
Scarlett Lewis: Yeah. When I did come home to my house, I saw a message that Jesse had left on our kitchen chalkboard shortly before he died. He had written three words. Alex, I want you to hear this too. He'd written three words: ‘nurturing healing love’. This is what Jesse wrote on our kitchen chalkboard. Three words; nurturing healing love, phonetically spelled because he was in first grade and just learning to write, but I looked at those words and I found a solution for what had happened. I knew that if Adam Lanza had been able, Adam Lanza is the former recent student, a recent graduate of Sandy Hook elementary, the newtown school system — If he had been able to give and receive nurturing healing love, the tragedy would never have happened, and so I dedicated my life to spreading that message. I have it on my body at all times. I believe it was a spiritual awareness that he had. That he wasn't going to be on Earth very much longer and he wanted to leave a message for his family and friends of comfort but also inspiration. I believe that that message is where we need to turn in order to survive and thrive - keep our kids safe. It helped me. It helped me determine how I was going to respond knowing that we are responsible for our children's safety. That what we had been doing wasn't working. Obviously, my son was dead and so I decided to take a completely different course. I decided to address the root cause of the pain that led up to Adam Lanza doing what he did, the root cause of the isolation, loneliness, pain, suffering, bullying, even the root cause of substance abuse, and a lot of mental illness and so I started the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement and I started that movement and we say it started at Jesse's funeral because I got up and I got up and talked about how an angry thought started that whole tragedy and that an angry thought can be changed and I asked everybody to choose a loving thought over an angry thought and that changed people's lives and so I I took that foundation and Jesse's message and his courage that he showed and I created a movement I wanted it to be a place where- because there so much polarization after Sandy Hook. It was polarized into anti-gun pro-gun. That was the conversation. All the blame went on Adam and his mom and that didn't make sense to me because if it was all their fault it would never have happened before obviously and it would never happen again. So, I wanted to create a space where everyone can come together and what we all have in common, even you and I, the want and need to love and be loved. We're all the same in that and so I created the Choose Love Movement because I wanted to bring both of the sides together. Of course we're more polarized now than we ever have been as a country. You know that some of that is because of you and I am trying to bring us all together in what we're the same in, which is the want and need to love and be loved. All of us are the same in that. All of us feel pain. You've felt pain in your life. I know I have too and we have to teach our kids how to process that pain so that they don't turn into an Adam Lanza and they don't take it out on other people and that's what the Choose Love Movement does. It's free programming for schools, homes, and communities. It's comprehensive. There's nothing else like it out there, and that's what I've done every day since I started this, which is very shortly after the funeral, is I focus on the Choose Love Movement and I focus on being part of the solution.
Mark Bankston: Have you made it your life goal?
Scarlett Lewis: Yeah, it's absolutely my life goal to make sure that our children are safe and to safeguard their safety and well-being. It's our responsibility. I didn't know that before the tragedy. I didn't know. I mean, I'm a single mom. Both my son's safety was my responsibility and I knew that, but I wasn't aware that our children's safety, our children’s, including your six-year-old son or daughter, is our responsibility, and we have to do something to safeguard them especially in schools. We keep our money safe. We can keep our kids safe and that is my life's goal.
Mark Bankston: This has been going since 2013?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes
Mark Bankston: Has it been a way for you to try to continue to heal?
Scarlett Lewis: It has. Yes
Mark Bankston: How has what this man has said about you and your family and Jesse affected Choose Love and the way that you are attempting to heal?
Scarlett Lewis: I've literally dedicated my life to trying to keep kids safe and to spread a message that we can thoughtfully respond in any situation, circumstance, or interaction by choosing love and you are spreading lies and fear and falsehoods and deception and untruths. There is a truth and I believe that you know it and this is so important. I feel like we're at odds with our missions.
I'm trying to spread love. I'm trying to keep kids safe because I couldn't do it for my own and you were saying that it didn't happen and you're taking away the credibility of what I'm trying to do.
A quarter of Americans believe that Sandy Hook didn't happen or they doubt the facts surrounding it and you continue to peddle that conspiracy theory and that is not conducive to keeping our kids safe. It's not conducive to keeping our kids safe.
Mark Bankston: The way that you have used Choose Love to help yourself heal. Has the lies that he has given you, has that interrupted that feeling?
Scarlett Lewis: It has. It has because you can't heal when you're afraid.
Mark Bankston: Talk to me about apology and compare that to paying for the damage that has been caused the way you feel about those two.
Scarlett Lewis: Well first of all, there has not been a sincere apology, but if there was ever, I liken it to being in a car accident and you run over someone and cause tremendous bodily damage and you look at that person lying on the ground and say, “I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry, but I'm not accountable or responsible for any of the damage that I just caused but I'm sorry.” That's how I see it.
Mark Bankston: Would you, at this moment in time when you're sitting on that stand now, be at the stage where you would be able to accept an apology? Would it mean anything to you?
Scarlet Lewis: No.
Mark Bankston: As to the other side of this, the damages that you're asking this man to pay for, why are you asking for those damages? What do you hope will be accomplished?
Scarlett Lewis: Alex has been asked to stop and he hasn't. He's still doing it today. You've been doing it last week, every day this week, or at least, I don't know, shows you've had while you should be in here, you've been on your show and you've been talking about this. Your counterpart has been talking with you about this and so you're not going to stop. I don't even think my pleading with you up here is going to get you to stop, and all of the damage that you caused, the fear that you've put people in from your following, the way that you've impacted so many lives. I think that there has to be accountability for that. I don't think you understand. I don't. I think you know that Sandy Hook is real and that it happened. I know you're shaking your head no, but I know that you think that it's real. I know that you know that it's real, but I don't think that you understand at all because the people that work for you don't understand the repercussions of going on air with a huge audience and lying and calling this a hoax and a false flag. You don't understand the repercussions to individuals' lives. You don't understand the net that is cast in a negative way. You don't understand that. You don't understand and I don't think you will understand unless there's some form of punishment that is significant that would make you understand that this is real. This isn't staged like one of your people said. This is a real event. It seems so incredible to me that we have to do this. That we have to implore you, not just implore you, punish you, to get you to stop lying saying it's a hoax. It happened. It's like, surreal what's going on in here. I think everyone in here probably feels that way. I lost my train of thought.
Mark Bankston: Is that what you hope to accomplish?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes.
Mark Bankston: Through this process?
Scarlett Lewis: Yes, I hope to accomplish an era of truth- an era of truth. Please.
Mark Bankston: How difficult has it been for you waiting for this day, literally for this very moment where you're sitting in that chair right now, this reality? How difficult has it been for you waiting for that?
Scarlett Lewis: In some way you've impacted every single day of my life negatively almost since Jesse's murder. Since 2013, when your videos were going around in my house in my mom's house about starting to say that this didn't happen and I'm so glad that this day is here. I'm actually relieved and grateful to everybody that's here in service to our society and I'm grateful that I got to say all this to you, and that I got to speak my truth, and I just I'm really looking forward to this being over so that I can get back to healing and spreading my message, spreading Jesse's message of love.
Mark Bankston: Ms. Lewis, I cannot thank you enough for sitting and being so great on that chair.
Scarlett Lewis: I want to thank you for representing us.
Judge Maya Gamble: If you don't hear your questions, it is because I made the decision that it wasn't appropriate for some reason. So, you can't direct your frustration at me now. Ms. Lewis, I am going to ask you a number of questions, and I'm going to ask you to respond to them to the jury and if you'll just listen carefully and answer the question. I can't explain it. So, you have to answer the question as it is, okay. How has Jessie's passing affected your parenting of your other son JT?
Scarlett Lewis: that's a good question it has impacted my parenting obviously I think that when you have one son that's murdered you want to bubble wrap the other son so that they never feel pain and that's obviously impossible and I think that I've done that a bit with JT trying to be overly solicitous and trying to keep him safe.
Judge Maya Gamble: And how has Alex Jones and Infowars affected your parenting?
Scarlett Lewis: I think that question relates to the first question. As a parent, it's your responsibility to keep your kids safe, and I wasn't able to do that with my first child, and so I am probably overly zealous in trying to do that with JT, and so I've taken measures that might seem over the top to some but to me I don't want to fail my surviving son, and I know consciously that I didn't fail Jesse. When he was murdered at Sandy Hook because he was where he was supposed to be by law, but you have a little bit of guilt that you sent them to school that morning. So, I think that is definitely impacted by parenting and it's negatively I would say. Unfortunately, I think that he would agree, but you know, I was doing the best that I could with the skills and tools that I have at the time.
Judge Maya Gamble: How many lives has the Choose Love Movement touched and how has it made them better?
Scarlett Lewis: The Choose Love Movement has impacted millions of lives all over the world.
In fact, our last conservative estimate was over three and a half million children that have received this type of essential life skills programming. This type of programming enables them to thoughtfully respond to any situation, circumstance or interaction by choosing love. We have a powerful formula that we teach, and this formula leads you. It's a pathway to flourishing and it starts with courage. Courage to tell the truth, the courage to be present with whatever is happening in your life, the courage to do the right thing. Then gratitude is the next formula. It's the courage to be grateful even when things aren't going your way. I try to live my life this way. It's the courage to forgive even when the person who hurt you isn't sorry, doesn't care, or may not even know. And then compassion in action which is the courage to step outside of your own pain and suffering even your own busyness and distraction to help other people. And then the beautiful thing is when you help other people that helps and heals yourself and I have certainly felt that these are just some of the things that we teach kids. This type of programming was priced out of the market for my son. The school that he went to when I asked them about this type of programming they said they spent so much money on this type of program that they couldn't afford to train the teachers in this. So, I thought wow this would have saved my son's life. So, I created a program and I made it free because every child, actually every parent, every grandparent, every human being should have access to these essential life skills that are backed by science and that we know can create a safer, more peaceful and loving world.
Judge Maya Gamble: Would you include Alex Jones and his family in the Choose Love Movement if he was inclined to join?
Scarlett Lewis: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Judge Maya Gamble: Would you forgive Alex Jones if he truly apologized and compensated monetarily and stopped the propaganda on or off the Infowars platform?
Scarlett Lewis: I'm so glad you asked that question. Whoever did, it's a great question. Forgiveness is something that I've learned so much about since the tragedy and I didn't know much about before and it's really Instrumental in my own personal healing. I think a lot of people are going to learn about it today with me speaking about it, but actually I have said that I forgive
Alex. I've said that I forgive Adam Lanza and I feel compassion for him, and I forgive Alex and I feel compassion for you, but forgiveness starts with a choice and then it becomes a process. That doesn't mean that everything goes away, that you make this decision to forgive and then everything's okay. Forgiveness starts with a choice. Choose love. It is choosing love. Forgiving starts with a choice, but then it becomes a process depending on who you are and your situation and your story and your level of pain. It is something that you might have to do every single day, multiple times a day, and it's a way to let go of some of the pain and to get your personal power back to enable you to live your life. Forgiveness is a powerful healing tool,
but it's something that I have to work on every day. It doesn't mean that you don't hold the person that you're forgiving accountable. They're still responsible for what they did. It has nothing to do with accountability. This is maybe a bad example, but if someone was raped you could forgive your rapist, but you would have to hold them accountable because if you didn't
then they would continue doing that to other people. So, you have some amount of responsibility in your forgiveness to continue to hold somebody accountable because if you don't then they will continue.
Judge Maya Gamble: Ms. Lewis, thank you for your time and your testimony. We all appreciate it at this time you can go back down to where you've been sitting. Thank you.