Jury selected for Alex Jones’ Sandy Hook defamation trial

AUSTIN, TEXAS >> A Jury was selected Monday in a trial that will determine for the first time how much Infowars host Alex Jones must pay Sandy Hook Elementary School parents for falsely telling his audience that the deadliest classroom shooting in U.S. history was a hoax. Opening statements are set for today. The trial in Austin, Texas — where the conspiracy theorist lives and broadcasts his show — follows months of delays. Jones has racked up fines for ignoring court orders and he put Infowars into bankruptcy protection just before the trial was originally set to start in April.

At stake for Jones is another potentially major financial blow that could put his constellation of conspiracy peddling businesses into deeper jeopardy. He has already been banned from Youtube, Facebook and Spotify over violating hatespeech policies.

The trial involving the parents of two Sandy Hook families is only the start for Jones; damages have yet to be awarded in separate defamation cases for other families of the 2012 massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.

A total of 16 people were selected for the jury, which includes four alternates. That total panel includes seven women and nine men.

The lawsuits do not ask jurors to award a specific dollar amount against Jones. Family members of the shooting victims and Jones were not in the courtroom Monday.

During the first round of questioning from attorneys for the families, several potential jurors in the initial pool of more than 100 said they held strong beliefs on free speech and questioned whether any punitive damages would be fair. A few others said they would struggle to assign damages that could reach $100 million or more. Yet others said that although they also believe in the principles of free speech, they would not have a problem assigning damages — even a large amount of money — for blatant falsehoods that might have caused harm.

Jones’ attorney, Andino Reynal, said his client was not in court because he has a “medical issue” and that Jones’ doctor and legal team advised him not to be there. He didn’t elaborate.

Reynal also said he intends to ask the jury to award no more than $1. Reynal said he quizzed the jury pool about how many of them had heard of Jones, and most had. He has said nearly two dozen had a “firm negative opinion” of Jones, who he acknowledged is “very polarizing.”

“Alex Jones is a very controversial figure,” Reynal said. “This is an extraordinarily important case to free speech systems.”

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