A controversial decision by a Connecticut appeals court has once again put the spotlight on online talk show host Alex Jones. The court upheld a fine of $75,000 against Jones following a lawsuit by family members of the Sandy Hook shooting. Jones was ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in punitive damages for repeatedly stating the shooting was an orchestrated hoax perpetrated by crisis actors.
The fine was issued on Dec. 15, 2022, after Jones missed a deposition in March following the lawsuit. He claimed he was unable to attend due to illness and his doctors’ recommendations, but according to the state appellate court, he continued to broadcast his InfoWars show live at the same time. The court concluded that his failure to attend the deposition was willful.
Jones’s attorney, Norm Pattis, criticized the court’s decision, calling it “manifestly unjust” and asserting that it countermanded a doctor’s orders. However, Alinor Sterling, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, referred to Jones’s criticism as baseless, stating that Jones flagrantly broke court orders.
The 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, resulted in the death of 20 children and six teachers. Jones was subsequently sued by family members of the deceased for causing emotional distress by publicly stating on his show that the shooting never really happened and was a false flag orchestrated to push gun control laws.
In the trial against Jones in 2022, eight of the victims’ relatives, as well as one FBI agent, testified that they were threatened and harassed by people who denied the shooting happened. The harassment included strangers turning up at some of their homes, public abuse, and threatening messages online, including death and rape threats.
The lawsuit included nearly a $1 billion in awards to the families and the FBI agent, as well as an additional $473 million in punitive damages. A similar trial earlier the same year resulted in Jones paying around $50 million to parents of another murdered child in the same shooting, again for calling the massacre a hoax. A third trial in Texas by two other parents is currently still pending.
Jones has issued an appeal in both the Connecticut and Texas judgments. His attorney has stated that despite the small size of the fine in comparison with the overall judgment, the principal and point being made here is significant. It remains to be seen if Jones will be successful in his appeals against the rulings.
The legal battle surrounding Alex Jones and his controversial claims regarding the Sandy Hook shooting continues to unfold, and it remains a divisive issue that has prompted strong opinions from both supporters and critics of Jones. Time will tell what the eventual outcome of this ongoing saga will be.
