The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Alex Jones, Sandy Hook families, square off in state Supreme Court
HARTFORD — In what amounted to a legal sideshow in the multimilliondollar lawsuit that Sandy Hook families have filed against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, the state Supreme Court on Thursday heard an emergency appeal in which Jones’ attorney claimed his client’s hyperbolic onair attack against an opposing attorney did not create a clear threat.
During a 90minute hearing prompted by state Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis’ recent sanctions against Jones, Norman Pattis, his attorney, said that Jones’ statements about Chris Mattei of the Bridgeport firm of Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder did not defame Mattei or put him in danger.
“The claim is that Mr. Jones’ speech caused others to act in intimidating manners,” Pattis said, arguing his client’s 1st Amendment protections. “Mr. Jones is unpopular and he says things that I often disagree with. I would rather have him at my side in almost any circumstance than an officious instrumental(ist) that’s going to tell me that I am notoriously bad because I don’t like what you say.”
About 160 radio stations carry Jones’s program. Millions of visitors each month go to the InfoWars website and Jones had more than 800,000 followers on Twitter before his account was suspended.
“There’s no doubt that the trial court found that this speech was unprotected,” said attorney Joshua Koskoff, who, like Pattis, was bombarded with questions from the seven members of the high court. After the hearing, Chief Justice Richard A. Robinson first suggested that the two sides stay nearby, indicating a quick ruling, but 20 minutes later, court officials announced that a decision would not be imminent, indicating possible disagreement among the jurists.
Bellis, hearing arguments in preparation for a November 2020 trial, recently ruled that Jones’s conduct in a 20minute TV broadcast attack against Mattei was improper. In August, Mattei received childpornography from Jones during the state court’s limited discovery period, and reported the material to the FBI.
Jones used his show to issue a tirade at Mattei, a former federal prosecutor. “You’re trying to set me up with child porn, I’ll get your ass,” Jones stated on the broadcast. “One million dollars, you little gang member. One million dollars to put your head on a pike.” Jones then pounded a photograph of Mattei. “I’m gonna kill …”
Bellis rejected an attempt to dismiss the civil lawsuit filed by the families affected by the December 2012 murders of 20 first graders and six adults in Sandy Hook Elementary School. Jones has claimed that the massacre was a staged event, with young “crisis actors.”
“There’s no doubt that the trial court found that this speech was unprotected.” Attorney Joshua Koskoff
Pattis had requested a special motion to dismiss the case against Jones and his codefendants, but Bellis found that Jones engaged in series of delays and obfuscations. She ordered that Jones pay part of the legal fees accumulated by Sandy Hook families, several of whom accompanied Koskoff to court Thursday. Jones claimed that Bellis unjustly denied his case for dismissal.
Koskoff told the high court that Jones’ attack
against Mattei came during the prolonged discovery process for the underlying case against Jones. The families, whose lead plaintiff is Erica Lafferty, the daughter of Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, the Sandy Hook Elementary School principal who was among the first murdered that day by gunman Adam Lanza, are suing Jones over a variety of issues, from invasion of privacy to defamation. Defendants include companies associated with Jones, whose InfoWars has allegedly stoked listeners to threaten and harass Sandy Hook families.