The fact that Jones might be reviled, and the plaintiffs are so sympathetic, shouldn’t be a factor, he added. “The trial judge has a vast amount of discretion to consider if the jury award is the result of passion or prejudice,” Rustad said. (Photo by Sergio Flores/Getty Images) Sergio Flores/Getty ImagesĪlex Jones faces a reckoning, but the style of politics he popularized is here to stayīut that may not be enough to stop the verdict from being reduced. The protest was organized by Infowars host Owen Shroyer who is joining other protesters across the country in taking to the streets to call for the country to be opened up despite the risk of the COVID-19. “It’s the thing that is going to prevent him from doing this to other families.”ĪUSTIN, TX - APRIL 18: Infowars founder Alex Jones interacts with supporters at the Texas State Capital building on Apin Austin, Texas. “Money is all that Alex Jones cares about, and the only way to even begin to start to explain … how he’s made us feel” is to hit his pocket, Erica Lafferty, the daughter of Sandy Hook Principal and shooting victim Dawn Hochsprung, told Anderson Cooper Wednesday. Plaintiffs in the case said the reason they sued was to stop Alex Jones from continuing to spread lies and hurt other people. Rustad said the fact that these are compensatory damages, designed to make plaintiffs whole for a loss, rather than punitive damages, designed to punish a defendant for wrongdoing, does bolster the plaintiffs’ case.īut the fact that the amount of the verdict is not for strictly economic damages, such as lost wages or the cost of medical care, could still make it vulnerable to being reduced by the court, Rustad said.Īlthough there was some testimony about family members having to pay for increased security due to harassment caused by Jones’ broadcasts, most of the damages were to compensate them for the emotional distress he caused them. “I think the verdict is reasonable and justified by the evidence presented.” “In Connecticut, we’re very deferential to wisdom and judgment of juries,” he said. “The plaintiffs will often engage in negotiations after a trial court verdict after concern that if it goes to appellate court, they could get less.”īut Mattei said he’s not concerned about a court ordering a reduction. “There can be settlements after dust has settled, after negotiations about what the defendant can pay,” Rustad said. It is also possible the plaintiffs’ attorneys could negotiate a reduced settlement with Jones, said Michael Rustad, a law professor at Suffolk University in Boston who has studied jury verdicts. After he was found guilty in a default judgment - but before the damages portion of the trial began - Jones filed for bankruptcy protection for his company, Free Speech Systems, in a bid to protect it from being wiped out by the judgment. Legal experts said there is a good chance the final amount will be reduced, either by the trial judge, an appeals court or a bankruptcy court. Jones, who plans to appeal the verdict, said during his Infowars broadcast Wednesday that there “ain’t no money” to pay the massive figure the Connecticut jury awarded the plaintiffs. For those reasons, the amount of the damages could grow in the coming weeks, Mattei said. The judge will also consider what attorney fees should be awarded. The question of punitive damages in the Connecticut trial will now be considered by the judge, not the jury, whose work on the case is done, said Christopher Mattei, an attorney for the plaintiffs. But $45.2 million of that award was for punitive damages, which may be reduced due to a Texas statute. Plaintiffs in the case in a Connecticut court testified about the pain and suffering caused by Jones’ false claims that the 2012 shooting was staged, and that the families and first responders were “crisis actors.”Ī separate pair of family members in a similar suit in Texas won a $49.3 million jury verdict in August. Jones was hit with that staggering jury award Wednesday for compensatory damages caused by his repeated lies about the shooting. But it is far from clear how much of that money they’ll ever see. Alex Jones owes $965 million to eight family members of Sandy Hook shooting victims and a first responder.
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