Alex Jones faces fines for skipping Sandy Hook plea.
HARTFORD: A Connecticut judge said Wednesday that Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones will be fined for each day of the week that passes without him appearing for a deposition in a lawsuit Submitted by family members of some victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
The sanctions were in response to Jones defying court orders to attend deposition last week, citing a health issue that included vertigo that later turned out to be a sinus infection.
Her testimony is sought before a trial to determine how much she should pay in damages to the families for pushing a conspiracy theory that the massacre never happened.
The fines will start at $25,000 per business day beginning Friday and will increase by $25,000 per business day until he appears for a plea, Judge Barbara Bellis said.
She found Jones in contempt of court orders and repeated her opinion on Wednesday that letters sent by Jones’s doctors did not include enough evidence that he was too ill to attend last week’s deposition.
She noted that Jones appeared on his website show, either in person or by phone, every day last week.
“The court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant, Alex Jones, knowingly and in bad faith unjustifiably violated several clear court orders requiring his attendance at depositions,” Bellis said during a court hearing held via videoconference.
Bellis, a Waterbury Superior Court judge, also ordered that the deposition take place at the families’ attorneys’ office in Bridgeport, Connecticut, instead of Austin, Texas, where it was scheduled to last week. Austin is home to Jones and Infowars.
However, the judge again denied a request by attorneys for the Sandy Hook families to order Jones’s arrest and detention until he could appear for a plea. Lawyers first made the request last week.
Jones’ attorney, Norman Pattis, criticized Bellis’ ruling and planned to appeal to the Connecticut Supreme Court on Thursday.
“The judge’s order is shocking and an insult to the doctor who advised Alex not to attend court proceedings,” Pattis said in an email to The Associated Press. “We consider the order to be illegal and unprecedented.”
Christopher Mattei, an attorney for the Sandy Hook families, said during the hearing that the families were seeking sanctions because Jones violated court orders and appeared to be trying to avoid entering the plea.
“So what we’ve tried to do … is change that calculation, make it clear to Mr. Jones that the fines that will be imposed as a result of his further non-compliance are not worth it and that he should sit down and testify. to avoid them,” Mattei said.
A new deposit date was not immediately set. Cameron Atkinson, another attorney for Jones, said Jones would be available to testify on April 11.
Twenty-first graders and six educators were killed in the December 2012 shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. The gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, killed his mother at their Newtown home before the shooting and killed himself at school when police arrived, authorities said.
The families of eight of the victims and an FBI agent who responded to the school sued Jones, Infowars, and others in Connecticut, saying they have been subjected to harassment and death threats by Jones supporters because of the false conspiracy. promoted on your show. Since then, Jones has said that he believes the shooting happened.
On Tuesday, Jones’ attorneys filed court papers offering to pay $120,000 per plaintiff to settle the lawsuit and apologizing for “any distress caused by his comments.” The families’ attorneys rejected the offers.
Jones was found liable for damages to the families in the Connecticut lawsuit, as well as some Sandy Hook families who sued him in Texas. Judges in both states found Jones liable by default without a trial, saying he repeatedly refused to abide by court rulings and provide the evidence requested by the families’ attorneys.
Jones and his attorneys said he gave thousands of documents to the families’ attorneys and took depositions in the Texas cases.
Trials are scheduled for later this year in Connecticut and Texas to determine how much Jones should pay the families.
This story has been corrected to show that the fines Jones would face start at $25,000 per weekday and increase by $25,000 per weekday, not from $25,000 to $50,000 per weekday.