HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – A Sandy Hook families lawyer said on Monday that Alex Jones should be ordered to pay significant damages to stop him and other conspiracy theorists from continuing to tell followers that the 2012 Newtown shooting was a hoax. to the nearly $1 billion he has already received to pay victims’ relatives.
Attorney Christopher Mattei’s comments came during a video conference hearing before a Connecticut judge about how much punitive damages the host of Infowars and his company, Free Speech Systems, should pay victims’ families. In a hypothetical calculation, the families’ lawyers say the punitive damages could total $2.75 trillion, but they have not asked for a specific amount.
Judge Barbara Bellis said she will decide at a later date.
Jones’ attorney Norm Pattis argued that any punitive damages should be minimal because last month’s $965 million jury verdict on compensatory damages is so large and “unmatched” that it is the functional equivalent of punitive damages. Mattei disagreed.
“Here, where – in our view – the behavior really rises to the level of reprehensible, malicious, really just malicious behavior, there is no situation where … nominal punitive damages would be sufficient under the law,” Mattei told the judge . “None of us, I think, can imagine what wickedness it took for Mr. Jones to do what he did.”
Jones, based in Austin, Texas, continued to bash the trial as unfair and an attack on free speech. He has said he will appeal the verdict and has already requested a new trial. He also said he doesn’t have $2 million to his name, so he can’t afford the verdict.
Pattis wondered Monday how the jury arrived at the $965 million figure. He said there was no evidence at the trial of Jones’ assets or Free Speech Systems.
“The jury came up with an unusual verdict,” Pattis said. “You never come up with an algorithm that explains it. These numbers are simply unmatched in Connecticut history, perhaps in the history of at least the United States.”
The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown killed 20 first-graders and six teachers. Relatives of eight victims and an FBI agent who responded to the school have sued Jones and Free Speech Systems, who were charged last year with defamation, inflicting emotional distress and violating Connecticut’s Unfair Trade Practices Act.
All 15 plaintiffs gave emotional testimony during the month-long trial, describing how they were threatened and harassed for years by people who believe the shooting did not take place.
Strangers showed up at some of their homes and confronted some of them in public. People threw insulting comments at them on social media and in emails. And some said they received threats of death and rape.
The jury’s verdict was intended to compensate plaintiffs for their past, present and future emotional distress, defamation and violations of the Unfair Commercial Practices Act. The jury also said punitive damages were warranted to punish Jones for his conduct. Bellis determines the amount of that compensation.
Punitive damages are generally limited to attorneys’ fees for emotional distress and defamation, but there is no limit to such damages under the Unfair Trade Practices Act, which prohibits deceptive trade practices and unfair competition.
The attorneys for the Sandy Hook families must receive one-third of the damages received, under a commission agreement. So Jones and Free Speech Systems could be ordered to pay an additional $322 million in punitive damages to the plaintiffs in addition to the nearly $1 billion.
And Jones could be sentenced to pay even more punitive damages under the Unfair Trade Practices Act. Such damages are usually several times the compensatory damages, the lawyers for the families say. Mattei said Jones should be punished by law for his continued criticism of the trial, the judge and the plaintiffs’ lawyers.
Pattis objected that there was no evidence at trial that Jones sent anyone to threaten and harass the families. He also said a $1 billion verdict was high enough for punishment and deterrence, and that no damages should be awarded under the Unfair Trade Practices Act.
“My view is that if a billion doesn’t do it, a trillion won’t do it. $3 trillion isn’t going to do it,” Pattis said.
In Texas, the parents of two other children who died in the shooting have filed similar lawsuits against Jones. A jury in one of the cases ordered Jones to pay nearly $50 million in damages, and the second trial in Texas is set to begin around the end of the year. The $50 million judgment is expected to be reduced due to Texas damages limits.
