Alex Jones’ favorite lawyer gets seat at CT Sandy Hook trial
NEWTOWN — Alex Jones’ favorite Texas lawyer will be allowed to sit at his defense table during the Sandy Hook defamation awards trial in Connecticut in September, as long as the out-of-state attorney doesn’t actively try the case.
The reason: the same attorney, Andino Reynal of Houston, will be busy defending Jones in separate Sandy Hook defamation lawsuits next week and again in September in Texas — a fact that state Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis does not like much.
“Attorney Reynal is not required to attend jury selection or trial on a daily basis (in Connecticut),” Bellis ruled this week. “While Attorney Reynal may sit at counsel table on the days he is attending jury selection or trial, he may not present evidence, examine witnesses, or argue matters to the court.”
Instead, the judge ruled, Jones’ case in Connecticut will be managed and presented by New Haven attorney Norm Pattis.
If it sounds unusual to admit an out-of-state attorney who cannot devote himself full time to the case in question on the condition that he not take too active a part in the defense, it is.
Bellis at a pretrial conference earlier this month said she had never permitted
such a thing but would keep an open mind on the strength of Pattis’ argument that he needed Reynal to present Jones’ best defense.
Pattis explained to the judge that Jones had lost trust in him and as a result, Pattis needed the access to Jones that Reynal enjoys.
“There has been some turbulence in my relationship with (Jones) and there has been a rearrangement of counsel where … Reynal is playing the role that I hitherto played,” Pattis told Bellis in mid-July. “Given the intricacies of this case, we need (Reynal).”
Bellis’ ruling to admit Reynal came with a further condition: “The unavailability of attorney Reynal shall not be used as a basis for a motion for continuance.”
Translation: Pattis agrees not to argue that because Reynal won’t be available for the entire Connecticut case, it’s grounds to ask for postponement since Jones is being deprived of his counsel of choice.
Pattis’ decision comes as the parents of a boy slain in the Sandy Hook massacre prepare for a jury trial on Tuesday in Texas to determine how much Jones will pay them in compensatory and punitive damages for defaming them last year.
Jones called the 2012 massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “completely fake with actors.”