Alex Jones asks Supreme Court to hear appeal of $1.4 billion Sandy Hook Elementary judgment
FILE-InfoWars founder Alex Jones speaks to the media outside Waterbury Superior Court during his trial on September 21, 2022 in Waterbury, Connecticut. (Photo by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images)
Alex Jones is requesting that the Supreme Court hear his appeal of the $1.4 billion judgment a Connecticut judge ordered against him for calling the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting a hoax.
The 2012 shooting killed 20 first-graders and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut.
Jones, a far-right conspiracy theorist, contends that the judge was wrong to find him liable for defamation and infliction of emotional distress without holding a trial based on accusations from the families of victims of the shooting.
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According to the Associated Press, Judge Barbara Bellis issued a rare default ruling against Jones and his company, Infowars, in 2021 as a punishment. That meant that Bellis found Jones liable without a trial on the facts and convened a jury to determine what damages he owed.
An appellate court in Connecticut upheld all but $150 million of the $1.4 billion judgment in December, and the state Supreme Court declined to hear Jones’ appeal of that ruling in April.
Alex Jones ordered to pay Sandy Hook victims’ families
The backstory:
In October 2022, a six-person jury in Waterbury, Connecticut issued a $964 million verdict in favor of the plaintiffs — an FBI agent who responded to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and families of eight children and adults who were killed in the attack.
Judge Barbara Bellis later added another $473 million in punitive damages against Jones and Free Speech Systems, Infowars’ parent company that is based in Austin, Texas.
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In a similar defamation lawsuit filed in Texas by the parents of another Sandy Hook victim, the Associated Press reported that Jones was found liable without a trial as punishment for not turning over documents. In that case, a judge and jury issued a $49 million judgment against Jones in August 2022.
Jones filed for personal bankruptcy protection in December 2022, referencing debts that included almost $1.5 billion he was ordered to pay to families who sued him over his conspiracy theories about the school shooting.
Sandy Hook families took legal action against Jones after he repeatedly claimed the 2012 school shooting was a "hoax." But Jones later acknowledged the tragedy was "100% real," with many families continuing to endure years of harassment and trauma resulting from Jones’ statements and influence.
The Source: Information for this story was provided by previous LIVENOW from FOX reporting and the Associated Press. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.