Alex Jones ordered to pay nearly $1 billion to Sandy Hook families
Alex Jones was ordered by a Connecticut jury to pay $965 million to an FBI agent and to the families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims after he claimed the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax on his radio show, Infowars.
Jones, for years, said the shooting in Newtown, Conn. that left 26 dead was a hoax and called the victims “crisis actors.” Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emily was killed, said her memorial page was tarnished with comments calling the families liars and sending threats. Mark Barden told the court how Jones’ followers urinated on the grave of his 7-year-old son and threatened to dig up his coffin.
In June of 2018, the plaintiffs–eight of the victims’ families and one Federal Bureau of Investigation officer–initially filed their defamation lawsuit in the Connecticut Superior Court against Jones, Infowars and Free Speech Systems LLC (Infowars’ parent company).
The trial to determine damages began Sept. 13 after Jones was found liable for defamation. This verdict comes a little over two months after Jones was ordered by a Texas jury to pay $50 million to Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, whose six-year-old son died at Sandy Hook.
Lindsay Giovannone is a senior majoring in history and minoring in criminal justice. She has been part of the paper since she was a freshman and has previously...