BRKG Alex Jones trial -- Millions and millions....... close to a Billion awarded by jury!!

mzkitty

mzkitty

I give up.
I couldn't hear it well, but it sounds like millions and millions and millions. He's toast.

WATERBURY, Conn. (WTNH) — The jury has determined how much conspiracy theorist Alex Jones will pay for spreading the lie that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.

The 15 plaintiffs include an FBI agent who responded to the shooting and relatives of eight victims who died. Twenty children and six educators were killed.

Jurors must decide how much Newtown families suffering worth


The jury has been instructed to arrive at two compensatory damages amounts per plaintiff: one sum for defamation damages and another for emotional distress damages.

Jurors also will decide whether Jones should pay punitive damages; the judge would decide the amounts later.

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.

www.wtnh.com

Jury orders Alex Jones to pay $965M in damages to Sandy Hook families, FBI agent

The jury has determined conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should pay a total of $965 million to the relatives of eight victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and an FBI agent for spreadi…
www.wtnh.com www.wtnh.com
 
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mzkitty

mzkitty

I give up.
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8 min ago

WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) — The conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should pay $965 million to people who suffered from his false claim that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax, a jury in Connecticut decided Wednesday.

The verdict is the second big judgment against the Infowars host over his relentless promotion of the lie that the 2012 massacre never happened, and that the grieving families seen in news coverage were actors hired as part of a plot to take away people’s guns.

It came in a lawsuit filed by the relatives of five children and three educators killed in the mass shooting, plus an FBI agent who was among the first responders to the scene. A Texas jury in August awarded nearly $50 million to the parents of another slain child.


The Connecticut trial featured tearful testimony from parents and siblings of the victims, who told about how they were threatened and harassed for years by people who believed the lies told on Jones’ show.

Strangers showed up at their homes to record them. People hurled abusive comments on social media. Erica Lafferty, the daughter of slain Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochsprung, testified that people mailed rape threats to her house. Mark Barden told of how conspiracy theorists had urinated on the grave of his 7-year-old son, Daniel, and threatened to dig up the coffin.

Testifying during the trial, Jones acknowledged he had been wrong about Sandy Hook. The shooting was real, he said. But both in the courtroom and on his show, he was defiant.

He called the proceedings a “kangaroo court,” mocked the judge, called the plaintiffs’ lawyer an ambulance chaser and labeled the case an affront to free speech rights. He claimed it was a conspiracy by Democrats and the media to silence him and put him out of business.


“I’ve already said ‘I’m sorry’ hundreds of times and I’m done saying I’m sorry,” he said during his testimony.

Twenty children and six adults died in the shooting on Dec. 14, 2012. The defamation trial was held at a courthouse in Waterbury, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Newtown, where the attack took place.

The lawsuit accused Jones and Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, of using the mass killing to build his audience and make millions of dollars. Experts testified that Jones’ audience swelled when he made Sandy Hook a topic on the show, as did his revenue from product sales.

In both the Texas lawsuit and the one in Connecticut, judges found the company liable for damages by default after Jones failed to cooperate with court rules on sharing evidence, including failing to turn over records that might have showed whether Infowars had profited from knowingly spreading misinformation about mass killings.

Because he was already found liable, Jones was barred from mentioning free speech rights and other topics during his testimony.

Jones now faces a third trial, in Texas around the end of the year, in a lawsuit filed by the parents of another child killed in the shooting.

It is unclear how much of the verdicts Jones can afford to pay. During the trial in Texas, he testified he couldn’t afford any judgment over $2 million. Free Speech Systems has filed for bankruptcy protection. But an economist testified in the Texas proceeding that Jones and his company were worth as much as $270 million.

www.kvoa.com

Alex Jones ordered to pay $965 million for Sandy Hook lies

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been ordered by a Connecticut jury to pay $965 million to people who suffered from his false claim that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting
www.kvoa.com www.kvoa.com
 
Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
While I have felt for years that Alex chose the wrong "hill to die on" (I was a subscriber year and years ago but stopped listening quite a while back) awards like this in what is really a civil case are just a new way to try to ensure silence and to bankrupted alternative voices and everyone knows it.

Part of this is that I know from serving on a US Jury in a civil case, that sometimes they don't give the jury any kind of idea of what damages should be awarded. It is also common practice for lawyers on both sides to tend to go for the dimmest and least aware people as jurors (our forum was a WWII Veteran who couldn't hear any of the proceedings and relied on us in the jury room to repeat bullet points to him - he was a wonderful man but had no business being on a jury as he had gone stone deaf!)

At one point I threatened to bring in the code of Hammurabi (pre-internet) to determine what a certain body part had been worth in sheep in Ancient Mesopotamia and translate it into modern dollars because we simply got no guidance at all (this was in the 1980s).

This jury probably knows they are expected to be "outraged" and ask for a "big" (impossible to ever pay) settlement. Insuring that on top of the other case he's already been looted, I mean convicted of; Alex will never again be able to have any personal funds or have a real radio show unless someone else puts it on for him. Any salary will be garnished and he will essentially have unpayable debts for life and I suspect that's the plan.

I am not saying he isn't guilty, I haven't paid that much attention, but these settlements are way out of whack for pushing a news story that turned out not to be "proven" to be correct.
 
O

OldArcher

Has No Life - Lives on TB
mzkitty said:
I couldn't hear it well, but it sounds like millions and millions and millions. He's toast.

WATERBURY, Conn. (WTNH) — The jury has determined how much conspiracy theorist Alex Jones will pay for spreading the lie that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.

The 15 plaintiffs include an FBI agent who responded to the shooting and relatives of eight victims who died. Twenty children and six educators were killed.

Jurors must decide how much Newtown families suffering worth


The jury has been instructed to arrive at two compensatory damages amounts per plaintiff: one sum for defamation damages and another for emotional distress damages.

Jurors also will decide whether Jones should pay punitive damages; the judge would decide the amounts later.

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.

www.wtnh.com

Jury orders Alex Jones to pay $965M in damages to Sandy Hook families, FBI agent

The jury has determined conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should pay a total of $965 million to the relatives of eight victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and an FBI agent for spreadi…
www.wtnh.com www.wtnh.com
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The families of the victims will never see the amounts that the jury will award. As mzkitty has said, “He’s toast.” I don’t know if his attorney’s will receive his wealth, or be allocated to the victim’s families. Regardless, “realistic” jury awards seldom reflect the desires of attorney’s, or their clients. It’s truly the art of compromise, after all the dust has cleared…

OA
 
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WalknTrot

Veteran Member
What he did was horribly cruel to those parents. He wasn't the only one.
Still, the numbers are meaningless at this point. Sooner or later, both sides are just gonna have to let it go. What's done is done, and the worst of it remains that a bunch of little kids are dead, and their families are devastated.
 
Dobbin

Dobbin

Faithful Steed
The other part of the Jones Trial which is a burr under my saddle is that Jones is BARRED from introducing testimony.

Because he was already found liable, Jones was barred from mentioning free speech rights and other topics during his testimony.
Click to expand...

Found liable on WHAT BASIS? Basis of having an erroneous opinion? Basis of ONE COURT found him liable in situation while similar can't be called identical until after a trial finding it so.

Each trial stands on it's own merits. The state makes their case IN TOTAL and the defendant rebuts his case IN TOTAL.

Um. If this is a Defamation case - who was "damaged" by the Defamation - and can the Defamed damages be "quantified?"

Defamation - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

All states except Arkansas,[citation needed] Missouri and Tennessee recognize that some categories of false statements are so innately harmful that they are considered to be defamatory per se. In the common law tradition, damages for such false statements are presumed and do not have to be proven.

Statements are defamatory per se where they falsely impute to the plaintiff one or more of the following things:[2]
  • Allegations or imputations "injurious to another in their trade, business, or profession"
  • Allegations or imputations of "loathsome disease" (historically leprosy and sexually transmitted disease, now also including mental illness)
  • Allegations or imputations of "unchastity" (usually only in unmarried people and sometimes only in women)
  • Allegations or imputations of criminal activity (sometimes only crimes of moral turpitude)[12][13]
Click to expand...

Note each of these carry with it a burden to the defamed of "proof of loss." It could be business loss, relationship loss, or reputation loss.

Jones was not responsible for the killing - and it is hard for this being to imagine that ANYTHING that Jones might say could have any effect on the parents other than accentuating their grief - a non-quantifiable entity not on the list above.

And parents have a choice to not listen. This to assuage their grief.

Yup. A "Landmark" case of free speech. And one which will have repercussions for YEARS to come.

Next will be a trial against Trump for his "Big Lie."

Dobbin
 
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BadMedicine

BadMedicine

Would *I* Lie???
WalknTrot said:
What he did was horribly cruel to those parents. He wasn't the only one.
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His words hurt them? And they chose to listen. THEY did this to themselves. I would agree he defamed them if they had any fame or if in any profession professional capacity they had lost money. I don't think they proved or try to prove that in this court. People in elected government do and say a illegal sh*t every day and I am personally financially and physically hurt by it. Alex Jones has a radio show and everything that he does is covered under parody. There is no law that anyone on air has to report the news, the truth, and the Supreme Court has upheld that. This will just cost the parents more time and money. They will never see one red scent and if they do it will go straight to the lawyer's. Just the inside of courtrooms & REHEARING HIS HURTFUL WORDS- and more for the next decade. and as I said above, they did that to themselves.
 
mzkitty

mzkitty

I give up.
WalknTrot said:
What he did was horribly cruel to those parents. He wasn't the only one.
Still, the numbers are meaningless at this point. Sooner or later, both sides are just gonna have to let it go. What's done is done, and the worst of it remains that a bunch of little kids are dead, and their families are devastated.
Click to expand...

More than the kids, if you remember. Complete list here:

www.businessinsider.com

It's been almost a decade since the Sandy Hook shooting. Here are the names and pictures of the 27 victims, including 20 children, who were murdered that day.

On December 14, 2012, a 20-year-old man walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and shot 26 people, including 20 children.
www.businessinsider.com www.businessinsider.com
 
TheSearcher

TheSearcher

Are you sure about that?
I knew people at work connected to the event, and there was a real horror there. People were indeed massacred there.

There were ALSO some hinky things there, too, and AJ should have acknowledged that and focused on that. Not call the whole thing a hoax.

But a billion-dollar judgement for hurting people's feelings? That's indefensible. It's essentially non-obtainable, as well.
 
Dennis Olson

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
Blue 5 said:
He was free to pick any another hill to die on. He chose poorly. He defamed those families and that defamation caused them great harm. I have no sympathy for Jones.
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Though he did defame them in a backhanded way, he didn’t do a billion dollars in damages. Though I have no sympathy for him either, I DO understand that the cancel culture will be emboldened by this. That’s where the true danger lies.
 
Teeja

Teeja

On the Beach
All you folks who critique Alex Jones for being a "nutjob".... just keep it up... because you're the "nutjobs of tomorrow" who will be targeted and cancelled just like Alex.

Alex Jones took one for the team. You should be thanking him for revealing (in advance) what the communists have in store for ALL of us patriots who refuse to submit to the "official narrative". As if you didn't know already... :rolleyes:
 
D

desertvet2

Veteran Member
I have watched alex since the internet became public. He is not a conspiracy theorist. He is a passionate man who cares about america and made money on telling the public what devious things were going on under their noses.

He makes mistakes just like any of us.

He is a watchman on the wall.
 
Teeja

Teeja

On the Beach
desertvet2 said:
I have watched alex since the internet became public. He is not a conspiracy theorist. He is a passionate man who cares about america and made money on telling the public what devious things were going on under their noses.

He makes mistakes just like any of us.

He is a watchman on the wall.
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ABSOLUTELY TRUE... and yet, our side continues to take pot shots at our own warriors (people like Alex Jones). What kind of patriotic Constitution-loving bunch are we, when one of our own gets slammed against the wall, all we can say is "he's a nut job" or "he deserves it"?

Our nation is lost if the only people stepping up to defend it keep getting hit by "friendly fire".

It's time to circle the wagons, not attack or criticize those who are actually making a difference in this war. :(
 
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