Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones will be required to pay $25,000 each day he refuses to appear in court for a defamation lawsuit against him by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre victims.
Connecticut Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis denied the motion to halt the financial penalties imposed on Jones, which began Friday. The fine is set to increase by $25,000 each day that Jones refuses to appear and sit for deposition.
Jones, the founder of right-wing conspiracy news site Infowars, claimed the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut was a hoax. The families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims have sued Jones for defamation.
Jones failed to comply with court orders to appear at a deposition on March 23 and 24, but according to his attorneys, he will be available to sit for a two-day deposition on April 11 and 12, which would make his running fine $525,000.
‘Jones and others are sued for comments they made denying that the shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012 took place. For many Connecticut residents, that is reason enough to hate Jones. One suspects Judge Bellis has succumbed to that hatred,’ defense attorney Norm Pattis wrote in the state supreme court appeal.
Judge Bellis found Jones in contempt of court orders on Wednesday, and said letters submitted by Jones’ doctor did not provide enough evidence that he was too sick to attend last week’s deposition.
Bellis noted that Jones appeared on his website show, Infowars, either in-person or by phone, every day last week.
‘The court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant, Alex Jones, willfully and in bad faith violated without justification several clear court orders requiring his attendance at his depositions,’ Bellis said during a court hearing.
The plaintiffs’ attorney, Christopher Mattei, argued to keep the fines in place, saying that Jones’ promise to appear on April 11 is not the same as ‘real-life attendance’ at the deposition.
Twenty first-graders and six educators were in the 2012 shooting. The gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, his mother in their Newtown home before the massacre, and then himself at the school as police arrived.
The families of eight Sandy Hook victims and an FBI agent who responded to the shooting sued Jones, Infowars and others in Connecticut, saying they have been subjected to harassment and death threats from Jones’ followers because of the conspiracy theories he promoted about the shooting on his show.
Jones has since said he believes the shooting did occur.
.
For more stories like this, .
