A jury in Wisconsin has awarded $450,000 to the father of a 6-year-old killed in the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Conn., after a judge ruled that the man had been defamed by the publication of a book denying that a shooting even took place .

On Tuesday, a jury in Dane County determined the amount that Leonard Pozner, whose son, Noah, was the youngest of the 26 victims killed in the massacre, should be awarded after a judge ruled that the book’s authors, James Fetzer and Mike Palecek, had defamed Mr. Pozner. In their book, Mr. Fetzer and Mr. Palecek claim that Mr. Pozner faked his son’s death certificate as part of a hoax staged by the government to take guns away from Americans.

Mr. Fetzer, an emeritus professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota Duluth who lives in Wisconsin, called the decision “absurd” and said he planned to appeal, according to The Wisconsin State Journal.

Richard Bolton, Mr. Fetzer’s lawyer, did not immediately respond to messages .

Mr. Palecek previously settled with Mr. Pozner for an undisclosed amount.