NEWTOWN — In the first Connecticut court appearance since Alex Jones was sprung from bankruptcy protection to face a damages award trial for a defamation case he lost to Sandy Hook families, his New Haven-based attorneys asked to be dropped from the case.
“We are in an untenable position — our communication with our client has broken down,” said Cameron Atkinson, a lawyer who works with high-profile New Haven attorney Norm Pattis. “We have not had direct communication with our client in over a month.”
State Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis said she has heard that story before. She listed 13 separate motions where Pattis and other attorneys have either replaced each other or asked to be dropped from Jones’ case over the last four years. In an unusually lengthy ruling, Bellis called it a “tortured history of appearances,” which was “convoluted and bizarre.”
Thursday’s hearing, which revealed that Jones is seeking to forestall a similar damages award trial in Texas where he lost two other defamation cases to Sandy Hook parents last year, is the latest development after a springtime saga that saw Jones seek bankruptcy protection for his business interests without seeking bankruptcy protection for himself. Lawyers for Sandy Hook families here and in Texas figured how to get their cases returned to state trial courts by simply dropping the Jones business entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits.
It wasn’t a hard decision to make. The three Jones business entities in federal bankruptcy protection have a combined monthly income of $38,000. Jones made at least $76 million selling merchandise to his Infowars audience in 2019, his representatives said.
The bankruptcy cases revealed that Jones has not only spent $10 million on attorneys fees and has lost at least $20 million because of the Sandy Hook lawsuits, but Jones is concerned that his brand as the “Coca-Cola of the conspiracy theory community” may be suffering, his representatives said.
Lawyers for an FBI agent and eight Sandy Hook families who won a defamation case against Jones in Connecticut last year agreed with Bellis not to allow Pattis to withdraw from Jones’ case.
“The (families) oppose any action that could potentially delay the trial date in this case,” wrote Alinor Sterling from the Bridgeport firm Koskoff, Koskoff and Bieder. “Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Aug. 2, 2022, and trial is scheduled to begin on Sept. 1.”
During a Thursday morning court conference in Waterbury, Bellis ordered Pattis and Atkinson to continue representing Jones until she rules on the matter on June 15.
Bellis refused to move the trial date from early September to October, when Atkinson asked her to accommodate Pattis’ plans to spend time with family in July.
“The most appropriate pathway is to have a hearing on the motion to withdraw (our representation) first and proceed with a new (trial) schedule from there,” Atkinson said. “I appreciate your honor’s repeated statement that the trial date is going to hold firm, but I believe with these developments in the case, it is not practically feasible at this point.”
Bellis responded “no” for now.
“I am not surprised, attorney Atkinson, that is your position,” Bellis said. “I am going to deny it, and if you want to file a formal written motion … I will consider it.”
At the same time in Texas, two Jones defamation cases that were frozen in bankruptcy court were returning to trial court. The first of two jury trials was expected to begin at the end of June.
Jones’ attorneys in Texas filed a motion claiming the $1 million in legal fees he was ordered to pay by a judge left him unable to raise a defense and constituted a deprivation of his right to due process, lawyers here and in Texas confirmed.
What Jones’ motion may mean for the start of the first Texas jury trial was not clear.
“It’s just another part of the game that Alex Jones is playing,” said Bill Ogden, an attorney representing four parents who won two defamation cases against Jones in Texas. “We are contemplating how to respond.”
Jones called the 2012 killing of 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “completely fake with actors.”
Jones got more bad news on Thursday when Bellis ruled to unseal an email containing social media engagement data that Jones considered a trade secret.
“Your arguments that this be kept confidential and that this is a trade secret are … unsupported by any credible evidence or expert witnesses,” Bellis said to Jones’ attorney Atkinson. “The sealed document is to be refiled unsealed within 10 days.”
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