Irving Pinsky.
A lawyer seeking $100M on behalf of a 6-year-old girl who survived the Sandy Hook Massacre has dropped his controversial lawsuit, which held the state accountable for not protecting its students.
While it may appear he caved to public outrage, Irving Pinsky tells ctpost.com:
I received new evidence on security at the school, which I need to evaluate.
This comes after State Attorney General George Jepsen said there’s no basis for the state and its taxpayers to be held liable, as reported by the New Haven Register:
Our hearts go out to this family, and to all the children and families affected by the Newtown shootings. They deserve a thoughtful and deliberate examination of the causes of this tragedy and of the appropriate public policy responses. However, the Office of the Claims Commissioner is not the appropriate venue for that important and complex discussion. Although the investigation is still under way, we are aware of no facts or legal theory under which the State of Connecticut should be liable for causing the harms inflicted at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Pinsky’s client, named only as “Jill Doe,” is a 6-year-old girl traumatized by hearing “conversations, gunfire and screaming” over the PA system of Sandy Hook Elementary School after someone switched on the intercom as shooter Adam Lanza launched his deadly rampage, which killed 20 young students.
Ctpost.com reports Pinsky believes there are methods the state could use to better protect students from such a tragedy:
including arming teachers with mace, more surveillance cameras and possibly weapons, including stun guns and gas that could be triggered remotely.
Below is Pinsky’s (now-withdrawn) filing with the state claims commissioner, whose permission he would have needed under the “doctrine of sovereign immunity” to pursue his $100 million lawsuit against the state Department of Education.