Alex Jones must pay Sandy Hook families nearly $1 billion for hoax claims, jury says | Reuters
Category: News & Politics
Via: kavika • 2 years ago • 90 commentsBy: Jack Queen,Jacqueline Thomsen (Reuters)
Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones must pay at least $965 million in damages to numerous families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting for falsely claiming they were actors who faked the tragedy, a Connecticut jury said on Wednesday.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Jack Queen and Jacqueline Thomsen
Oct 12 (Reuters) - Right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones must pay at least $965 million in damages to numerous families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting for falsely claiming they were actors who faked the tragedy, a Connecticut jury said on Wednesday.
The verdict, which came after three weeks of testimony in a state court in Waterbury, Connecticut, far outstripped the $49 million Jones was ordered to pay in August by a Texas jury in a similar case brought by two other Sandy Hook parents.
The Connecticut verdict applies to both Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems LLC, the owner of Jones' Infowars website. FSS filed for bankruptcy in July.
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The plaintiffs in the Connecticut case included more than a dozen relatives of 20 children and six staff members who were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012. Jones claimed for years that the massacre was staged as part of a government plot to take away Americans' guns.
Jurors said the plaintiffs should also be awarded attorney's fees, which are set to be determined in November.
During a live broadcast as the verdict was read, Jones vowed to appeal and said his company's ongoing bankruptcy will protect …
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Ah geez, Alex your lying has caught up to you. Hopefully it will be treble damages.
Jones has also said he won't stop harassing these people even after the award. He was not present in the court when the award was read, but livestreaming it on the air and used it to cry about being broke and asking his followers to send him more money.
Is he stupid or something? Or has all that hate affected his brain? Doesn't he know that he won't win if keeps harassing these families?
“…all that hate…”
…equals dollars. Unimaginable yet true.
His will be a reserved place in hell. Take him for all he’s worth, as he is worthless.
When I take over in Hell I have a special punishment just for him
Have a thought or two I’d be happy to contribute. See you there!
I just had an idea!
Keep an eye on the front page
He should do the world a favor and stick a finger in an electric socket.
While I have no sympathy for him, I doubt that the verdict damages will survive appeal.
They may or may not and he still faces another trial I believe. Whatever damages he is stuck with it's not severe enough for the POS.
The damages should be meaningful and impactful, but they also should be fair. IMO a $1 billion judgement is not fair. Alex Jones has a net worth between $135 and $270 million. The purpose of the judgement should not be to beggar and impoverish him, doing so by court order would then make him a ward of the government and I don't want my tax dollars going to support him.
If he is actually worth $135/270 I'm sure on the appeal it will be cut. If for some reason they find out he is lying or hiding assets then stick it to him.
He is currently on the hook for a $49 million verdict issued by a Texas court.
They should take all his money and then give him back enough to live on to the tune of, say, 50,000 a year. Leaving him any more than that would be an insult to all the people whose lives he ruined.
The jury had no idea of his net worth nor is it permissible for them to take that issue into consideration. The only issue for the jury to decide in regards to damages was how much would fairly compensate the plaintiffs for the damages they sustained as a result of his grievous misconduct. In my opinion, the amount awarded is good, but not enough.
His net worth seems to be all over the map.
the $135/$270 million figure came from
He has stated that he's broke, but nobody really believes it. Problem is that he's moved money around from public companies to private companies and under law he doesn't have to show the books for the private companies. It's a big shell game for him, and I expect this to go on for several more years.
That's also not a sure thing either.
If the judge reduces it, that would be a slap on the wrist for Jones. Similar to if you or I got a $100 speeding ticket, not enough to get us to stop. sigh
If it falls out the way you believe it might possibly do then keep him in court for the next couple of decades. Attorney fees are not inexpensive.
Yup, a billion on top of the almost 50 million.
Gee, too bad, so sad.
Hallelujah !!!
His jackass lawyer said something about this being a dark day for free speech. That's not free speech you halfwit imbecile !!!!
These grieving parents mourning the murders of their children were followed, doxed, and harassed mercilessly, for years by Jones and his cohorts. Families had to relocate, couples ended up divorced, there's no punishment too harsh.
I hope Jones and his ilk rot in hell.
You have to add lying pos to that for it to be as accurate as possible.
I could add many more descriptives.
Do American bankruptcy laws allow for following and claiming assets that have been hidden or moved offshore or transferred to others such as family members and associates the same as Canadian laws do? If not, the claimants will choke.
I do not know, Buzz.
$965 Million is symbolic. Those people will never see that money. The jury would have been better off to award all of them 1 Million to be divided between them.
Here in the US, Buzz, we have the American Bar Association. They lobby for ulimited monetary awards. That's one reason our medical bills are so high.
Why should Jones be allowed to ruin the lives of so many people, who will never be able to forget what he did to them, and still keep 99.5% of his money?
That would be the case if the total award was 1 million.
He is said to have 150 million in net worth. How about they take 99.5% of it and leave him with the one million (.5%) ?
I think this case is different from a medical malpractice award or a legal malpractice award or a workplace injury award which are probably the result of negligence. Jones knew what he was saying were lies and he did it anyway to make money off the pain of these families, then stood by while they were harassed for years by his insane followers. These families were just props to Jones, to be manipulated in front of his horde of brain dead sub human audience. He's lucky he's not going to prison, imo.
What good is awarding almost $1 Billion in damages if the victims can never collect?
Virtue signaling?
That should have been the award.
Not only that, American lawyers grab up to 40% of the awards. Canadian lawyers don't do that, but only bill on their hourly rates. When it comes to American lawyers, Shakespeare had the right idea.
Notice what I'm saying: that astronomical monetary awards become meaningless if they are uncollectable.
They will try to somehow get someone to defend Jones. There will be a lot of chum in the water. Stay clear of it.
The whole world is amazed at what American lawyers make.
I think it's outrageous.
There is no defending Jones idiocy, just like there is no defending a billion dollar award that will never be collected.
Right on both counts!
For now we get to enjoy the overkill!
It puts the big chill on his legion of copycats.
Good afternoon.
It puts the big chill on his legion of copycats.
The first thing he did was to file bankruptcy. So how does it intimidate anyone?
He can appeal the verdict and if the award is lowered it's lowered.
That is the way the system works.
Why would he do that? He can't pay. End of story.
How's that going? Do you actually believe his lessers are taking comfort in that process?
Thanks but I doubt if any of us were looking for Alex before or will be in the future.
He's the great strawman for the left.
Donald Trump thought enough of Jones to go on his show a couple times.
Both of these appearances were post- Sandy Hook lying by Jones by the way.
What strawman?
And DOTW always with the snark and the smartassery. He thinks he's cute.
Who here has posted anything by Jones?
Infowars doesnt pass the MBFC and cannot be seeded here.
I heard he was on his show yesterday mocking the verdict and asking his saps to send him a lot of money so he doesnt have to be one of the poors for the rest of his life.
Donald was probably thinking more about the potential votes that Jones' followers represented than Jones himself.
I don't have a clue but good luck at raising $1 billion in donations.
Child molesters and wife beaters vote too. Did Trump go before groups of them to beg for votes? Of course he wanted publicity but it is far more telling that he thought those clowns who watch Infowars might be an element of his base.
You tell me as you tracked his efforts much closer than I ever did. I made up my mind about the Donald before he announced his original campaign and never looked back.
That's not the reason John. The reason is that it only takes about 2 minutes to disprove what he says.
Infowars cannot be seeded here because it is off the charts extremist on MBFC.
We don't need censorship. Stories can be vetted, sometimes easily as with infowars, and sometimes it takes time as with the Russia/collusion hoax.
So now the so-called nonexistent "Russia hoax" was as far fetched as what Jones does every day?
At least you provide unintentional humor to the proceedings here.
It was far more serious. The msm and FBI were all part of it.
At least you provide unintentional humor to the proceedings here.
On November 8th i'll be providing consolation to all of you
Even a free speech "purist" like me is ok with banning InfoWars.
My vintage ACLU outlook on free speech is up against a breaking point with the internet. I'm struggling with this. Although I'm no fan of cancel culture and broad de-platforming strategies, a guy like Alex Jones has to be held accountable for his harmful lies.
Lies, like shouting, "Fire," in a crowded theater, where there is no fire, are not protected speech.
Unpopular opinions and outlooks are protected speech.
That doesn't mean I need to listen to that protected speech.
I'm sorry that you misunderstood, I really don't think that NT's ever went looking for Jones, I don't remember him referenced or used as a source here.
We all have to choose and I avoid dumbassery, but I can see, that's not for everyone.
Infowars was used as a source here, a number of times, during the 2016 election campaign. A certain member used it to try and smear Hillary Clinton about an alleged "medical condition". That same member started a group for Infowars fans at that time and said that he wanted to recruit people from the Infowars comment section to come here and join Newstalkers. After that fiasco Infowars was barred from use as a source here.
PROVE IT
Vic, I dont archive Newstalkers articles, especially ones that were eventually deleted.
The member was Badfish. He was also a member at the Infowars website and regularly posted hoax articles about Hillary during the 2016 campaign. Some of them were from Infowars and some of them were from other crank sites like Gateway Pundit .
I understand. We can save certain ones, but we seldom do.
The member was Badfish. He was also a member at the Infowars website and regularly posted hoax articles about Hillary during the 2016 campaign.
Ok. I never noticed. Those articles could easily be disproven, wouldn't you agree?
Some of them were from Infowars and some of them were from other crank sites like Gateway Pundit .
Basically the same source, which was obviously nuts.
He didnt care if his seeds were disproven. He would just seed another one the next day.
He's not doing it anymore is he?
Everyone get back on target/article none of you are lawyers so let the judicial system work and at the end of appeals, you can agree with it or bitch about it.
Didn't we all say that Jones was a liar?
Where does it go from there?
Allow me: It's the end of Infowars.
That would be a blessing.
That's what we got out of it.
In all fairness Alex Jones was actually right about two things in his life. The water was turning the frogs gay and Ted Kaczynski was a participant in the MKUltra experiments.
The false flag and child crisis actor diatribe was a little far fetched.
That was funny. I'm gonna keep my eye on you
I was wondering where Brucelina went.
Have you ever been a member here before?
I doubt anyone who was never a member of Newsvine could even find this place.
As long as someone isn't here to simply disrupt the place they are under no obligation to tell us who they are. Most of us are not here using our legal names as our NT handles. And some of us who are dedicated to a fixed account are racking up a lot of "tickets" each month.
That may be the sad truth.
I wonder if NewsTalkers has ever tried an ad campaign on Reddit or something like that?
(I realize this is a bit of a Meta off-topic comment, but I am not sure where else to ask it.)
I don't think so, Revillug
It would be a good idea.
That sounds like a silly number. I don't think there's any question about his wrongdoing or the fact of the harm it caused. But I don't know how you get to a billion dollars. That's dumb.
Whatever it takes to make the man go away.
I mean people get sued for being directly responsible for the actual death of a person, and you don’t see a billion dollar damage award.
Alex Jones does harm on enormous scale with his platform and there are probably numerous people dead because of him.
Whatever it takes to finally shut him down is a just verdict.
I don’t think that even his accusers in court have claimed that anyone is dead because of him. I’d like to see him off the air, but there will probably always be someone, somewhere, who will put a microphone in front of that lunatic.
Connecticut Senator Condemns Alex Jones, Facebook and Google After School Shooting Victim Suicides
Alex Jones, reached for comment by TheNewstalkers Alex Jones desk, had this to say, " I hope they don't mind if I pay by check..."
Alex Jones unlikely to escape ‘historically high’ defamation award, legal experts say
He’ll pay something, but it won’t be any “billion dollars.”
He'll spend the rest of his life under the burden of paying that billion dollars.
He will definitely pay, and it will be a lot...
He deserves no less for what he put those parents through.
As satisfying as this is, it's chicken scratch compared to what Dominion is going to peel out of Fox News, Newsmax OAN, Rudy and that lunatic Sydney Powell.