Make wishtv.com your home page

Trial date set for Sandy Hook lawsuit against gun manufacturer

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (WTNH) – Sandy Hook families suing the manufacturer, distributor and seller of the AR-15 assault rifle used in the Sandy Hook tragedy will all get their day in court when the trial begins on April 3, 2018.

“This is not just for the nine families in the suit with what happened at Sandy Hook. We are going to continue to march on with this and to hopefully preclude this from ever happening again and making some advances at improving people’s safety,” said William Sherlach, husband of school psychologist Mary Sherlach who was killed in the Sandy Hook shooting.

Last week, Connecticut state Judge Barbara Bellis said the trial will move forward after the defendants asked for the case to be thrown out.”We are obviously very happy with the judge’s decision basically this is just one more step in a long march to what we hope to be a preventative measure to preventing another Sandy Hook type of incident,” said Sherlach.

The Connecticut’s Citizen Defense League says the judge’s decision to let the trial go forward is a bad one. “This could be a blow to gun manufacturers even if the lawsuit doesn’t go beyond this point. It already costs them money to defend themselves from this type of action,” said CCDL President Scott Wilson.

The judge says the gun companies will have to share internal document and have executives ready for depositions. Sherlach added, “We look forward to the discovery process where we start to see what really goes on inside or behind the curtain at these companies.”

“We are optimistic. We deserve our day in court,” said Sandy Hook parent Mark Barden.