Infowars’ Jones facing new payout for his hoax
HARTFORD, Conn. — A month after losing a nearly $50 million verdict, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is set to go on trial a second time for calling the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting a hoax and causing several of the victims’ families emotional and psychological harm.
A six-member jury with several alternates in Connecticut will begin hearing evidence today on how much Jones should pay the families — he already has been found liable for damages to them. The trial is expected to last about four weeks.
Last month, a jury in Austin ordered Jones to pay $49.3 million to the parents of 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, one of 26 students and teachers killed in the 2012 shooting in Newtown, Conn. Jones’ lawyer has said an appeal is planned.
The Connecticut case has the potential for a larger award because it involves three lawsuits that have been consolidated. They were filed by 15 plaintiffs, including the relatives of eight of the victims and a former FBI agent who responded to the shooting.
Jones, who runs his web show and Infowars brand in Austin, also faces a third trial over the hoax conspiracy in another lawsuit pending in Texas by Sandy Hook parents.
The families and former FBI agent William Aldenberg say they have been confronted and harassed in person by Jones’ followers because of the hoax conspiracy. They also say they have endured death threats and been subjected to abusive comments on social media.
Some of the plaintiffs say strangers have videotaped them and their surviving children.
And some families have moved out of Newtown to avoid threats and harassment.
“I can’t even describe the last nine and a half years, the living hell that I and others have had to endure because of the recklessness and negligence of Alex Jones,” Neil Heslin, Jesse Lewis’ father, testified during the Texas trial.
The Connecticut lawsuit alleges defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and violations of the state Unfair Trade Practices Act. The families claim that when Jones talked about Sandy Hook, he boosted his audience and raked in more profits from selling supplements, clothing and other items.
The families have not asked for any specific amount of damages, some of which may be limited by state laws. There are no damage limits, however, under the Unfair Trade Practices Act.
In all the Connecticut and Texas cases, Jones and his lawyers repeatedly failed to turn over records as required to the families’ attorneys. In response, judges handed down one of the harshest sanctions in the civil legal world — they found Jones liable for damages by default without trials.Judge Barbara Bellis, who found Jones liable for damages, will oversee the trial.
She is the same judge who oversaw Sandy Hook families’ lawsuit against gun-maker Remington, which made the Bushmaster rifle used in the shooting. In February, Remington agreed to settle the lawsuit for $73 million.