Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has urged a Connecticut judge to overturn a nearly $1 billion judgment against him and order a new trial in a lawsuit brought by Sandy Hook families who claim that because of Jones’ lies about the 2012 Newtown school shooting, they were subjected to harassment and threats by people who believed the lies Jones said on his show.
Jones submitted the motions on Friday, claiming that the pretrial decisions made by Judge Barbara Bellis caused an unfair trial and a serious “miscarriage of justice.” His attorneys, Norm Pattis and Kevin Smith, stated in the request that the sum of the compensatory damages award exceeds any rational nexus to the facts produced at trial. On October 12, six jurors in Waterbury, Connecticut, handed down a verdict requiring Jones and his business, Free Speech Systems, to pay the plaintiffs $965 million in compensatory damages and additional punitive damages.
In the attack on December 14, 2012, six teachers and twenty-first graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School lost their lives. The 15 plaintiffs in the action against Jones are represented by Christopher Mattei, who said that he and other attorneys representing the Sandy Hook families would be submitting a brief opposing Jones’ request. As a result of Jones’ promotion of the false narrative that the shooting was a hoax staged by “crisis actors” in order to enact more gun control, an FBI agent who responded to the shooting and the relatives of the adults and eight children killed in the massacre took legal action against Jones for infliction of emotional distress and defamation.
In testimony, the relatives of the victims testified that they had endured years of harassment and threats from those who had bought into the fabrications on Jones’ show. Strangers approached the family in the open and showed up at their houses to record them. On social media, insulting comments were made. Family members claimed they were threatened with rape and death.
The judgments followed a Texas jury’s August ruling that Jones and his business must compensate the parents of another Sandy Hook victim for close to $50 million in damages. Near the end of the year, Texas is likely to host a third trial involving two additional Sandy Hook parents about the hoax allegations.
On his Austin, Texas-based Infowars show, Jones, admitted that the shooting did take place and criticized the lawsuits and trials, calling them unfair and an infringement on his right to free speech. But when the judges in Connecticut and Texas declared him liable for damages by default with, he lost his chance to offer those defenses.
In the filings submitted on Friday, the right-wing radio host’s attorney Pattis stated that there was insufficient proof linking Jones to those who intimidated and harassed the Sandy Hook relatives. According to Pattis, the trial was more like a burial ceremony than a trial.
Judge rules against Infowars host Alex Jones for false claims on Sandy Hook shooting
