Connecticut court upholds $965 million verdict against Alex Jones at Sandy Hook
HARTFORD, Conn. — The Connecticut Court of Appeals on Friday upheld a $965 million verdict from 2022 against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, determining there is “sufficient evidence” to support damages awarded to relatives of Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre victims and an FBI agent.
In its unanimous opinion, the court cited the “traumatic threats and harassment” suffered by the families “stemming from lies, as propagated by defendants, that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax.”
“Our review of the record reveals that there was sufficient evidence to support the $965,000,000 in compensatory damages awarded by the jury,” according to the 62-page decision. This is the largest jury verdict in Connecticut history.
The appeals court granted Jones a $150 million stay. It determined that the plaintiffs “failed to assert a legally viable claim” under Connecticut’s Unfair Trade Practices Act and that $150 million in punitive damages awarded by the lower court should be overturned, noting that the harm alleged by the plaintiffs came from false language and not related speech. advertising, marketing or sale of goods.
“We are relieved that the Court protected the press with its decision vacating damages in the unfair trade practices complaint, but we are otherwise disappointed,” Norm Pattis, Jones’ attorney, said in a statement. He said the jury in the case was “sold a bill of goods and led to believe” that Jones made millions spreading conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook mass shooting.
“He didn’t. The jury was also encouraged to believe that all the grief that befell the plaintiffs was Mr Jones’ fault. That was not the case,” Pattis said. “We had hoped that the Court of Appeals would have seen through the charade and farce that this trial had become. This is not the case.”
Jones now owes a total of about $1.2 billion, including $965 million to Connecticut families and nearly $50 million awarded by a Texas jury to the parents of a Sandy Hook child who been killed.
Jones filed for bankruptcy in 2022, and the sale of its Infowars platform is part of that deal. A bid by satirical media outlet The Onion to buy Infowars is expected to return to a Texas courtroom on Monday, where a judge will decide whether a bankruptcy auction was properly managed. Jones alleges collusion and fraud.
Lawyers for the Sandy Hook families hailed the Connecticut appeals court’s ruling Friday as an overall victory.
“Today, Alex Jones’ efforts to overturn the historic jury verdict against him and his corrupt company, Infowars, were unanimously rejected by the Connecticut Court of Appeals. The jury’s reprimand for Jones, worth $965 million, will stand, and the families who fought valiantly for years have brought Alex Jones another step closer to true justice.” the lawyers said in a statement.
Pattis said he would ask the Connecticut Supreme Court to review the appeals court’s decision.
Jones repeatedly told his millions of followers the 2012 massacre that killed 20 first graders and six educators was staged by “crisis actors” to establish more gun control.
The appeals court also determined that a lower court “properly exercised its discretion” in finding Jones and its Infowars parent company, Free Speech Systems LLC., liable for default damages for failing to cooperate with the court rules on sharing evidence.
