Judge sanctions Alex Jones
Orders host to pay plaintiff’s legal costs
BRIDGEPORT — A state Superior Court judge Tuesday lambasted “InfoWars” host Alex Jones for claiming lawyers for the parents of the Sandy Hook victims tried to frame him with child pornography and ordered him to pay their legal costs. But Judge Barbara Bellis stopped short of the lawyers’ demand that she default or rule against Jones prior to trial of their lawsuit claiming he defamed them by claiming the Sandy Hook tragedy was a hoax.
“The court has no doubt that Alex Jones was accusing plaintiffs’ counsel of placing child pornography in discovery material,” the judge said. “I reject the defense claim that Alex Jones was enraged, it was an intentional act of rage for his viewing audience.”
Jones was not in the courtroom but the judge directed her remarks to his lawyers.
The cost of the legal fee has not yet been determined and a trial date was going to be scheduled later Tuesday.
The law firm representing the families of
the 2012 mass shooting, Koskoff, Koskoff and Bieder, stated in court documents filed Monday they have contacted the FBI after discovering child porn in electronic files Jones recently turned over to the Sandy Hook families as a result of their lawsuit against him.
Koskoff lawyer William Bloss, during a hearing before Bellis on Tuesday, told the judge that after they discovered the child porn they immediately notified the FBI, the U.S. Attorney and Jones’ lawyer, Norman Pattis. He said they did not go public with their discovery.
Bloss said the FBI determined Jones had been sent the child pornography in emails and it was inadvertantly included in the material he forwarded to them.
Spokesmen for U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI said they had no comment on the case.
However, on June 14, Jones, in a video broadcast on his website and with Pattis sitting next to him, accused the Koskoff firm and its lawyer, Chris Mattei, of trying to frame him with child porn.
“You think when you call up, oh, we’ll protect you. We found the child porn. I don’t like kids like you goddamn rapists, (expletive). I’ll (expletive) get you in the end... You’re trying to set me up with child porn ... one million dollars to put your head on a pike,” Jones stated during a 20-minute rant in which he pounded on a photograph of Mattei.
Bloss told the judge he believed the statements made by Jones on the broadcast on June 14 and again on June 15 were threats against Mattei. He pointed out a previous broadcast by Jones had convinced a man to go into a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor with a gun because he believed Jones’ contention it was a front for a child trafficking ring operated by Hillary Clinton.
“Right now, there is a uniformed police officer standing in our lobby and he is going to have to remain there for the near future,” Bloss told the judge.
Pattis associate Zachary Reiland had been attempting to defend Jones, but after a recess, Pattis entered the courtroom in a very dramatic fashion and launched into an soliloquy defending his client’s First Amendment rights.
“I was present at the broadcast, and I was flabbergasted at the anger that I saw,” Pattis said. “Mr. Jones is a conspiracy theorist, he believes there are people out there that want to get him, and you know what? There are people out there that want to get him. I sat right there and he did not threaten Chris Mattei. There was no threat.”