Conn. Judge Finds Alex Jones Liable in Sandy Hook Defamation Suits

Alex Jones.Photo: JIM LO SCALZO/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

The shooting inside the Newtown, Conn., school claimed the lives of 20 children and six adults.

The decision means that a jury will determine what damages Jones owes the plaintiffs. A hearing to determine damages will happen in 2022.

“What’s clear from Judge Bellis’s ruling is that Alex Jones and the Jones defendants have engaged in a long, continuous course of misconduct in this case designed to prevent the plaintiffs from getting evidence about Mr Jones' business and about his motives for publishing lies about them and their families,” said Christopher Mattei, the lawyer representing the victims' relatives, after Monday’s ruling.

In a statement, Jones said that he did provide the documents the court had requested.

“These individuals, again, are not allowing me to have a jury trial because they know the things they said I supposedly did didn’t happen,” Jones said in the statement. “They know they don’t have a case for damages. And so the judge is saying you are guilty of damages, now a jury decides how guilty you are. It’s not guilty until proven guilty.”

Norm Pattis, one of Jones' attorneys, told the Associated Press an appeal of the judge’s decision is in the works.

After the shooting, Jones went on his show on Infowars.com, which has trafficked in various fictitious conspiracy theories, to spread baseless and inflammatory statements about the massacre.

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This isthe second such suitJones has lost in the last two months.

Online court records confirm that Jones will be deposed on Dec. 14, the mass shooting’s ninth anniversary.

source: people.com