Alex Jones is not rushing into bankruptcy protection after a Connecticut jury ordered him to pay $965 million in defamation damages to eight Sandy Hook families last week, his attorney said on Monday.
“[T]here is simply no need for a bankruptcy filing until the appellate courts have handled these cases on appeal,” said Jones’ bankruptcy attorney Shelby Jordan, speaking not only of the eye-opening Connecticut verdict but the $49 million a Texas jury ordered Jones to pay in August to parents of a slain Sandy Hook boy Jones defamed. “Keep in mind that these judgments were obtained by barring almost all defensive testimony to the damage claims made and in particular allowing the jury to hear only one side of that evidence.”
The first post-verdict fight will come on Thursday where Jones will ask a Texas judge to apply the state law’s $750,000 limit on punitive damages in civil cases, and deny a claim by the Sandy Hook parents that they are exempt from the cap because of their severe emotional suffering.
The two sides couldn’t be further apart.
The parents of the slain Sandy Hook boy argue they’re entitled to the $45 million in punitive damages the jury awarded as part of an overall $49 million verdict, because the parents qualify as disabled individuals under the law and are exempt from the cap.
“Mr. Jones intentionally caused emotional injury to (the parents) already suffering from severe emotional disturbance, and the only dispute was over the ratio between those injuries,” reads an argument by the parents’ lead attorney Mark Bankston. “(Jones) intentionally caused serious mental injury to disabled individuals under Texas Penal Code Section 22.04 because (the parents) were already suffering from severe emotional disturbance prior to the mental injuries they suffered from (Jones).”
Jones’ attorneys argue that the parents are attempting an 11th-hour stunt to exploit a loophole in the cap law after the verdict has been reached, depriving Jones from challenging the parents’ status as disabled people under the law during the trial.
“It is beyond question that (Jones is) prejudiced and surprised by the novel allegation that a specific provision within the punitive damages cap exception applies,” argued Jones’ attorney Christopher Martin. “Moreover, there was no evidence at trial that this emotional disturbance was of sufficient duration to result in functional impairment that substantially interferes with or limits (the parents’) role or ability to function in family, school, or community activities.”
A decision by Texas District Court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble will determine what damages Jones will have to pay in the first of three defamation trials involving Sandy Hook families. The second trial in Connecticut, which resulted in individual awards of tens of millions for 14 family members who lost loved ones in the Sandy Hook massacre and an FBI agent who responded to the shooting scene, was the most complex of the three trials. A third trial awaits in Texas where a jury will decide how much Jones must pay the parents of another slain Sandy Hook boy.
New Haven-based attorney Norm Pattis, who is running Jones’ defense in Connecticut, has already promised to appeal the Connecticut verdict.
In Texas, Jones’ lead trial attorney Andino Reynal said he would appeal the first Texas trial as soon as the judge decides on a verdict amount.
Reynal said that because Jones was found liable by default and was limited in what he could present in his defense during the awards trial, he has hope for a successful appeal.
“Alex Jones was deprived of his due process rights to a fair trial when the judge improperly entered a default judgment depriving him of his right to present his side of the story to a jury,” Reynal said on Monday.
Jones called the 2012 massacre of 20 first-graders and six educators “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “completely fake with actors.”
In Newtown, which for years had nowhere to turn as Jones and the Sandy Hook deniers he inspired spun the wild conspiracy, a veteran leader said the families’ $965 million victory in Connecticut uplifted everyone who was disheartened and demoralized that such blatant lies could persist in modern society.
Reach Rob Ryser at [email protected] or 203-731-3342
