The Connecticut Court of Appeals on Friday upheld a 2022 $965 million judgment against far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, upholding damages awarded to relatives of Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre victims and FBI agents. It was determined that there was “sufficient evidence”.
In a unanimous opinion, the court said the “traumatic threats and harassment” the families suffered “stemmed from the lie perpetrated by the defendants that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax.”
“After reviewing the record, we find that there was sufficient evidence to support the amount of damages awarded by the jury ($965 million),” the court said in its 62-page decision. This is the largest jury verdict in Connecticut history.
The Court of Appeals granted Jones $150 million. The court held that the plaintiffs “failed to assert a legally enforceable claim” under the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act, and that their injuries were not related to speech but to falsehoods. The court ruled that the $150 million in punitive damages awarded by the lower court must be reversed. Advertising, marketing, and product sales.
“While we are relieved that the court protected the news organization by reversing damages in the unfair trade practice claims, we are otherwise disappointed,” Jones’ attorney Norm Pattis said in a statement. ” he said. He said jurors in the case were “sold gift certificates and led to believe that Mr. Jones spread conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook shooting to millions.”
“He did not do that. The jury was also led to believe that Mr. Jones was responsible for all the grief that befell the plaintiffs. That was not the case,” Pattis said. “We were hoping that the Court of Appeals would see through the farce this trial had become. That wasn’t the case.”
Jones now owes a total of about $1.2 billion, including $965 million to a family in Connecticut and nearly $50 million a Texas jury awarded to the parents of a child killed at Sandy Hook. are.
Jones filed for bankruptcy in 2022, and the sale of his Infowars platform is part of that process. The bid by satirical news organization The Onion to buy Infowars is scheduled to return to a Texas court on Monday, where a judge will decide whether the bankruptcy auction was conducted properly. Mr. Jones alleges conspiracy and fraud.
Lawyers for the Sandy Hook families hailed the Connecticut Court of Appeals’ decision Friday as an overall victory.
“Today, Alex Jones’ efforts to overturn the jury’s historic verdict against him and his corrupt company Infowars were unanimously rejected by the Connecticut Court of Appeals,” the attorneys said in a statement. . “The jury’s $965 million reprimand against Jones stands and brings Alex Jones one step closer to true justice for the family who fought so valiantly over the years.”
Pattis said he will ask the Connecticut Supreme Court to review the appeals court’s decision.
Jones told his millions of followers that the 2012 massacre that killed 20 first graders and six educators was staged by “crisis managers” to enforce gun control. he said repeatedly.
In finding that Jones and Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems LLC, were liable for damages in default for failing to cooperate with the court’s rules regarding the sharing of evidence, the appeals court also ruled that lower courts The court ruled that the judge had “exercised his discretion appropriately.”
