According to court documents revealed Thursday, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who owns the right-wing commentary website Infowars, was held legally accountable in two lawsuits for damages caused by his allegations surrounding the 2012 Sandy Hook school mass shooting.
Default judgments were issued against Jones and Infowars by Judge Maya Guerra Gamble on Monday after Jones failed to comply with court orders to provide documentation for the cases filed against him by the parents of two children murdered in the school shooting.
Jones essentially lost the lawsuits by default.
According to the Huffington Post, a jury will be convened to determine how much he will owe the plaintiffs.
Mark Bankston, an attorney representing the parents, said in a written statement to CNN that the rulings provide his clients with “the closure they deserve.”
He added: “Mr. Jones was given ample opportunity to take these lawsuits seriously and obey the rule of law. He chose not to do so, and now he will face the consequences for that decision.”
Jones alleged that the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012 was a “giant hoax” perpetrated by crisis actors on behalf of anti-gun activists.
Before killing himself, the shooter killed 26 people at the school, including 20 children.
In both Texas and Connecticut, several victims’ families sued Jones for slander.
Jones and his parent company, Free Speech Systems, were found to have “intentionally disobeyed” court orders by failing to hand over specific documents connected to cases filed against him, according to the Texas judge.
“The Court finds that Defendants’ failure to comply … is greatly aggravated by [their] consistent pattern of discovery abuse throughout similar cases pending before this Court,” Gamble wrote in one of her rulings. “The Court finds that Defendants’ discovery conduct in this case is the result of flagrant bad faith and callous disregard for the responsibilities of discovery under the rules.”
During a sworn deposition in 2019 as part of a defamation case brought against him by Sandy Hook victims’ families, Jones confirmed the shooting was true.
Jones’ attorney, Brad Reeves, declined to comment when reached by CNN on Thursday, but attorney Norm Pattis claimed the court’s rulings were “stunning” in a statement posted on Infowars.
“It takes no account of the tens of thousands of documents produced by the defendants, the hours spent sitting for depositions and the various sworn statements filed in these cases,” the statement said. “We are distressed by what we regard as a blatant abuse of discretion by the trial court. We are determined to see that these cases are heard on the merits.”
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