A federal judge ruled Thursday that bankruptcy proceedings will not protect Infowars owner Alex Jones from paying more than $1.1 billion in damages to the families of victims of the Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut. (USA), who won a defamation case against him in the state last year.
The families filed a motion in May asking the court to force Jones to pay judgment damages and rule out the possibility of a forced settlement. If forced into a settlement through bankruptcy, Jones could have liquidated the broadcasting company and likely paid the families a substantially smaller amount while clearing the way to start a new company free of claims.
Jones filed for personal bankruptcy last December after being ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in Connecticut case filed by family members of eight shooting victims and a first responder.
The families sued Jones over her false claims about the December 2012 shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, that left 26 dead, including 20 children. Jones and other InfoWars figures called the massacre a hoax and accused the victims’ families of being actors.
Judge Christopher Lopez of Texas ruled in favor of the families except for the more than $322.5 million they received in common law punitive damages, which under Connecticut law are intended to cover attorney costs and legal fees.
Lopez also ruled on a similar motion for summary judgment filed by two other sets of parents to shooting victims who filed lawsuits against the right-wing conspiracy theorist and his Texas company.
The judge ruled that Jones is not protected from paying more than $4.4 million in compensatory and exemplary damages to Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewisparents of 6-year-old victim Jesse Lewis, who won the civil jury trial against Jones and his company last summer.
The judge said in that second order, also filed Thursday, that another trial should determine the amount of damages Jones should pay for the intentional infliction of emotional distress claims.
Jesse’s parents were awarded more than $44 million for that claim at trial, but the judge said the state court record is not clear enough about the jury’s determination based on Jones’ “intentional and malicious injury” to Heslin and Lewis.
Heslin and Lewis filed lawsuits against Jones and his company in 2018 for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Infowars filed for bankruptcy last July, in the middle of the trial.
The parents of another victim, 6-year-old Noah Pozner, who also filed a lawsuit against Jones and his company in Texas, did not attend the trial before bankruptcy proceedings began, so a damages trial must be held in his lawsuit against Jones, Judge Lopez ruled.
The summary judgments issued Thursday only addressed Alex Jones’ bankruptcy proceedings, not those of his company.
Jones has appeals pending in state court for both trial verdicts against him, so ultimately the fines could change if he manages to appeal any damages he was ordered to pay to families in Connecticut and Texas.
A CNN He reached out to lawyers for the families and Jones for comment, but has not received a response so far.
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Source: CNN Brasil
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