A Connecticut judge ordered on Thursday that Alex Jones, the host of the Infowars conspiracy show, must pay the families of the eight Sandy Hook massacre victims an additional $473 million in punitive damages for defaming them, bringing the total damages to close to $1.5 billion.
The families and an FBI agent accused of being involved in Alex Jones' false allegations received $965 million in compensatory damages from a jury in Waterbury, Connecticut, last month.
Alex Jones Ordered to Pay More to Sandy Hook Victims' Families
Additionally, the jury gave the families punitive damages in the form of attorney costs, which the court will determine. Per NY Times, these losses are represented by the $473 million judgment made on Thursday by Connecticut Superior Court Judge Barbara N. Bellis.
Earlier this year, a judge in Texas ordered Jones to pay the parents of another Sandy Hook victim $50 million, in the first of three trials to determine the damages Jones owes. A hearing on the case is planned on December 2. Judge Bellis also effectively froze Jones's personal assets, ordering him "not to transfer, encumber, sell or relocate his assets out of the United States until further order of the court."
A protracted legal struggle between the relatives of victims of a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012 and Alex Jones, a far-right conspiracy theorist, has been the focus of Christopher M. Mattei, a lawyer representing the Sandy Hook family in the Connecticut case.
Jones spread false information about Sandy Hook through his Infowars media outlet, saying that the incident in 2012, which claimed the lives of 20 first graders and six teachers, was a fabrication. The victims' relatives claim that Jones' allegations have worsened their anguish and that his supporters have harassed them and put their safety in danger.
Ten Sandy Hook victims' families filed four different lawsuits against Jones. Because Alex Jones declined to provide the court with papers, including financial records, throughout the course of four years of litigation, the cases were never tried to a jury; instead, Jones was held responsible by default in each one.
Sandy Hook Shooting
Alex Jones repeatedly claimed that the 2012 mass shooting in which 26 people died was staged and that the victims' relatives and first responders were "crisis actors" without any basis in fact.
A trial was held in September and October involving cases brought in Connecticut as a result of the lying, as per CNN. Throughout the trial, the plaintiffs in that complaint gave moving testimony about how the falsehoods had led to constant harassment against them and made the emotional pain of losing their loved ones worse.
When and how much of the money the plaintiffs will ultimately get are yet unknown. Jones has declared that he will appeal the Connecticut ruling and asserted that there "ain't no money" to cover the enormous sum that the plaintiffs were first given by the jury.
The verdict in Connecticut came after a different jury in Texas found that Jones and his business should pay roughly $50 million to the two Sandy Hook parents who filed a lawsuit there.
Jones first told a story about the 2012 shooting, but when he was being sued heavily, he fessed up and admitted the massacre had taken place. However, he disobeyed court orders throughout the discovery phase of the litigation in Texas and Connecticut, resulting in default judgments against him being obtained by the families in each state.
In Connecticut, punitive damages for defamation and causing emotional distress are often capped at the attorneys' costs of the plaintiff. According to a retainer agreement, the Sandy Hook plaintiffs' attorneys will receive one-third of the $965 million in compensatory damages, or $322 million, for their services.
Punitive damages for contravention of the provisions of the Unfair Trade Practices Act, however, are not limited. Although the plaintiffs did not want a precise dollar sum, they estimated that under the unfair trade legislation, punitive penalties might reach $2.75 trillion.
Jones was forced to pay almost $50 million to the parents of another child killed in the Sandy Hook tragedy in a similar trial in Texas in August for calling the shooting a fake. During that trial, a forensic economist testified that the total net value of Jones and Free Speech Systems may reach $270 million, Daily Mail reported.
Around the end of the year, a third and final trial in Texas on Jones' fake allegations is anticipated to start. Alex Jones was held responsible for damages in both Texas instances without going to trial, as he did in Connecticut, due to his failure to provide the plaintiffs with many records.
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