Paying for crazy claims
Jury awards families of victims $A1.5bn
A US jury has ordered far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay almost $1bn in damages for falsely claiming that the deadly 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting was a “hoax.”
The jury in Connecticut, where the massacre took place, awarded $US965m ($A153bn) to the families of eight Sandy Hook victims and an FBI agent who brought the defamation case against Jones.
Several family members who were in the courtroom broke down in sobs as the damage awards were read out by a clerk of the court. Jones was not present.
“It shows that the internet is not the wild, wild west and that your actions have consequences,” said Bill Sherlach, whose wife, Mary, died at Sandy Hook. “People like Alex Jones will have to rethink what they say and how they say it.”
Jones, founder of the website InfoWars and host of a popular radio show, has been found liable in multiple defamation lawsuits brought by relatives of the victims of the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, which left 20 children and six teachers dead.
The 48-year-old claimed for years on his show that the Sandy Hook shooting was “staged” by gun control activists and that the parents were “crisis actors,” but has since acknowledged it was “100 per cent real”.
Sandy Hook families maintained that his lies and denialism, coupled with his ability to influence the beliefs of thousands of followers, caused real emotional trauma.
Jones was also accused of pulling in massive profits from various products he sold on his website.
A Texas jury ordered Jones last month to pay almost $US50m in damages to Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose six-year-old son, Jesse, was killed by the 20-year-old gunman behind the Sandy Hook shooting.
The latest trial was held in Waterbury, Connecticut.
The six-person jury awarded damages for defamation, slander and emotional distress to a total of 15 plaintiffs ranging from a low of $US28m to a high of $US120m to Robbie Parker, whose six-year-old daughter, Emilie, died at Sandy Hook.
William Aldenberg, an FBI agent who responded to the Sandy Hook shooting and joined the families in filing the lawsuit against Jones, was awarded $US90m in damages.
InfoWars declared bankruptcy in April and another company owned by Jones, Free Speech Systems, also recently filed for bankruptcy.
Jones was appearing live on his InfoWars website as the damage awards were read out in court and said he planned to appeal.
“This is what a show trial is like,” he said, while appealing to his listeners to visit his website and buy his products.
Chris Mattei, a lawyer for the families, welcomed the jury’s decision: “We believe it is historic and we are going to enforce this verdict.”
Jones, a vocal supporter of former president Donald Trump, is also under scrutiny over the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol.