Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones ordered to pay $49.3M over Sandy Hook lies

Texas jury orders American conspiracy theorist to pay punitive damages for falsely claiming the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary shooting – in which 20 children and six educators were killed – was "staged" by gun control activists.

An economist testified that Jones and the Infowars company are worth up to $270 million, suggesting that Jones was still making money. (AP Archive)

A Texas jury has ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay $45.2 million in punitive damages to the parents of a child who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, adding to the $4.1 million he has to pay for the suffering he put them through by claiming for years that the nation's deadliest school shooting was a hoax.

The total — $49.3 million — is less than the $150 million sought by Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose 6-year-old son Jesse Lewis was among the 20 children and six educators killed in the deadliest classroom shooting in US history. 

But the trial marks the first time Jones has been held financially liable for peddling lies about the 2012 attack in Newtown, Connecticut.

After the verdict, Lewis said that Jones has been held accountable. She said when she took the stand and looked Jones in the eye, she thought of her son who was credited with saving lives by yelling "run" when the killer paused in his rampage.

"He stood up to the bully Adam Lanza and saved nine of his classmates’ lives," Lewis said. "I hope that I did that incredible courage justice when I was able to confront Alex Jones, who is also a bully. I hope that inspires other people to do the same."

Earlier this week, Jones testified that any award over $2 million would "sink us." His company Free Speech Systems, which is Infowars' parent company, filed for bankruptcy protection during the first week of the trial.

READ MORE: Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones ordered to pay $4.1M in Sandy Hook damages

Verdict: Alex Jones owes $45.2 million more to Sandy Hook in punitive damages. That's on top of $4.1 million in compensatory.

That's $49.3 million to two Sandy Hook families. Two more trials after this.

Unanimous verdict (what's required for punitive damages).

— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) August 5, 2022

Sending a strong message

Attorneys for the family had urged jurors to hand down a financial punishment that would force Infowars to shut down.

"You have the ability to stop this man from ever doing it again," Wesley Ball, an attorney for the parents, told the jury Friday. "Send the message to those who desire to do the same: Speech is free. Lies, you pay for."

An economist testified on Friday that Jones and the company are worth up to $270 million, suggesting that Jones was still making money.

Bernard Pettingill, who was hired by the plaintiffs to study Jones' net worth, said records show that Jones withdrew $62 million for himself in 2021 when default judgments were issued in lawsuits against him.

"That number represents, in my opinion, a value of a net worth," Pettingill said. "He’s got money put in a bank account somewhere."

The money that flows into Jones' companies eventually funnels its way to him, said Pettingill, who added that he has testified in approximately 1,500 cases during his career.

But Jones' lawyers said their client had already learned his lesson, and asked for lenience, saying the punitive amount should be less than $300,000.

"You've already sent a message. A message for the first time to a talk show host, to all talk show hosts, that their standard of care has to change" said Jones' lead attorney, Andino Reynal.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr-Okl64YQM[/embed]

Source: AP

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Alex Jones must pay Sandy Hook parents $45.2 million more in punitive damages

Comment

A Texas jury has determined Inforwars host Alex Jones must pay the parents of a Sandy Hook school shooting victim $45.2 million in punitive damages. The Friday decision comes a day after the same jury awarded the plaintiffs $4.1 million in compensatory damages, culminating the final phase of a defamation case first brought in 2018 over Jones’ repeated false claims that the deadliest elementary school shooting in U.S. history was a hoax.

Jones was not in court as the jury read the unanimous verdict.

The damages phase of the trial that ended Friday marks the first time Jones, an influential purveyor of far-right conspiracy theories, has faced financial repercussions in court for the outlandish lies he told via his Infowars broadcast about the shooting. Since the early days that followed the 2012 shooting that killed 26 people, including 20 young children, Jones said on his program that “no one died” at Sandy Hook and that the attack was a ruse “staged” by gun-control advocates to manufacture anti-gun sentiment.

Alex Jones must pay $4.1 million to Sandy Hook parents, jury rules

In the case brought by Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, the damages hint at what Jones could face in the months ahead in addition Sandy Hook defamation cases in Texas and Connecticut. It remains to be seen how much of the punitive damages the parents will ultimately receive as Texas laws cap such awards.

Jurors on Friday heard additional testimony about Jones’ finances before they began deliberations on what sum would would both punish Jones for his falsehoods and deter him from making them again.

In court Friday, Bernard Pettingill, Jr., a forensic economist and former economics professor at the Florida Institute of Technology testified he estimated the combined net work of Jones and his business entities to be between $135-$270 million.

“You cannot separate Alex Jones from the companies. He is the companies,” Pettingill said.

The testimony is in stark contrast to Jones’ public statements that he is financially bereft; his defense team originally asked the jury to award the plaintiffs $1 for each claim after contending Jones lost millions of dollars and followers when he was kicked off social media platforms like YouTube and Spotify.

Free Speech Systems, the parent company for Infowars website, filed for bankruptcy during the trial, though Pettingill and other witnesses said it was impossible to fully scrutinize Jones finances since he failed to provide documents to the court.

Jones’ refusal to comply with court orders around documents and other evidence resulted in District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble of Travis County, Tex., issuing default judgements against Jones last September, which made him liable for all damages.

But in a dramatic courtroom moment Wednesday, it was revealed that Jones’ legal team inadvertently sent the contents of his cellphone to a lawyer representing the parents. The apparent blunder led the plaintiff’s attorney Mark Bankston to accuse Jones of lying under oath when he testified that he did not have any text messages related to the Sandy Hook massacre.

During the jury’s deliberations, Jones’s lawyers requested a mistrial and demanded that Bankston delete the phone data they had handed over, which the judge denied.

Jones’s lawyers have said the legal battle against him is an attack on First Amendment rights, while the parents’ legal team argued that his rhetoric was defamatory and not protected.

Sandy Hook lawyers say Alex Jones’s attorneys accidentally gave them his phone contents

Heslin and Lewis testified during the nearly two-week defamation phase of the case that Jones’ relentless false claims that their son never died and they were “crisis actors” created a “living hell” for them.

While on the stand Tuesday, Heslin said as he grieved his son, he also contended with death threats and abuse from those who embraced Jones’ rhetoric.

“I can’t even describe the last nine and a half years, the living hell that I and others have had to endure because of the recklessness and negligence of Alex Jones,” Heslin told the jury.

In his closing arguments Friday, Bankston said jurors are tasked with with punishing and deterring Jones with their verdict and implored them to use their vote to “stop Alex Jones.”

“Truly, you have the ability today to stop this man from ever doing this again: from continuing to tear the fabric of our society apart for the great monetary gain that he has received thus far,” Bankston said.

“Speech is free,” he added. "Lies, you pay for.”

Meryl Kornfield contributed to this report.

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Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones ordered to pay $4.1M in Sandy Hook damages

Jury in US state of Texas orders host of Infowars website to pay compensatory damages to parents of a child who was killed in 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Jones has claimed media and gun-control activists conspired to fabricate Sandy Hook massacre and that the shooting was staged using crisis actors. (Reuters)

A Texas jury has ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay more than $4 million in compensatory damages to the parents of a six-year-old boy who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, marking the first time the Infowars host has been held financially liable for repeatedly claiming the deadliest school shooting in US history was a hoax.

The Austin jury, which announced the order on Thursday, must still decide how much the Infowars host must pay in punitive damages to Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose son Jesse Lewis was among the 20 children and six educators who were killed in the 2012 massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.

The parents had sought at least $150 million in compensation for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. 

Jones' attorney asked the jury to limit damages to $8 — one dollar for each of the compensation charges they are considering — and Jones himself said any award over $2 million "would sink us."

It likely won't be the last judgment against Jones over his claims that the attack was staged in the interests of increasing gun controls. A Connecticut judge has ruled against him in a similar lawsuit brought by other victims' families and an FBI agent who worked on the case. 

Parents suffer from 'complex' PTSD

Jones, who has portrayed the lawsuit as an attack on his First Amendment rights, conceded during the trial that the attack was "100 percent real" and that he was wrong to have lied about it. 

But Heslin and Lewis told jurors that an apology wouldn't suffice and called on them to make Jones pay for the years of suffering he has put them and other Sandy Hook families through.

The parents testified Tuesday about how they've endured a decade of trauma, inflicted first by the murder of their son and what followed: gunshots fired at the home, online and phone threats, and harassment on the street by strangers. 

They said the threats and harassment were all fuelled by Jones and his conspiracy theory spread to his followers via his website Infowars.

A forensic psychiatrist testified that the parents suffer from "complex post-traumatic stress disorder" inflicted by ongoing trauma, similar to what might be experienced by a soldier at war or a child abuse victim.

At one point in her testimony, Lewis looked directly at Jones, who was sitting barely 10 feet away.

"It seems so incredible to me that we have to do this — that we have to implore you, to punish you — to get you to stop lying," Lewis told Jones.

Jones was the only witness to testify in his defence. 

And he came under withering attack from the plaintiffs' attorneys under cross-examination, as they reviewed Jones’ own video claims about Sandy Hook over the years, and accused him of lying and trying to hide evidence, including text messages and emails about the attack. It also included internal emails sent by an Infowars employee that said "this Sandy Hook stuff is killing us."

Source: AP

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Alex Jones ordered to pay Sandy Hook parents more than $4M

Alex Jones has been ordered to pay more than $4 million in compensatory damages to Sandy Hook parents, a jury ordered Thursday.

The conspiracy theorist and Infowars founder was successfully sued by the parents of a 6-year-old boy who was killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre after he claimed that the shooting -- where 20 children and six adults were killed -- was a hoax, a claim he said he now thinks is "100% real."

The parents sued Jones for $150 million. A verdict on punitive damages is expected Friday.

Alex Jones steps outside of the Travis County Courthouse, to do interviews with media after he was questioned under oath about text messages and emails by lawyer Mark Bankston, in Austin, Texas, Aug. 3, 2022.

Briana Sanchez/Pool via Reuters

A lawyer representing the Sandy Hook families had said in court on Thursday that he intends to hand over two years' worth of Jones' text messages to the House committee investigating Jan. 6, after they were inadvertently provided to him by Jones' lawyers.

"I've been asked to turn them over. I certainly intend to do that unless you tell me not to," Mark Bankston told the judge, saying he's been asked by the Jan. 6 committee to turn them over.

A source familiar with the matter also told ABC News that the committee and Bankston have been in touch about receiving the messages.

A jury made the determination in Jones' defamation trial Thursday.

Bankston revealed Wednesday that Jones' lawyers mistakenly sent him two years' worth of text messages.

Bankston referenced "intimate messages with Roger Stone" that he said were not "confidential" or "trade secrets." He said that "various federal agencies and law enforcement" contacted him about the information.

"There has been no protection ever asserted over these documents," Bankston said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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