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On Wednesday, a civil jury in Connecticut ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his media company, Free Speech Systems LLC (FSS), to pay Sandy Hook families $965 million dollars, plus attorney fees. The complaint alleged that Alex Jones, by and through his media company, had smeared the families and called them crisis actors after the murder of their loved ones in the Sandy Hook mass shooting.

The cases are Lafferty et al. v. Jones et al., case number UWY-CV18-6046436S, and Sherlach v. Jones et al., case numbers UWY-CV18-6046437S and UWY-CV18-6046438S, which were filed in the Connecticut Superior Court, Waterbury Judicial District.

The families are represented by Christopher Mattei, Alinor Sterling, and Joshua Koskoff of Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder PC., and Defendant, Alex Jones, and Infowars are represented by Norm Pattis of Pattis & Smith LLC.

Before the trial commenced, Judge Barbara Bellis entered a default judgment against Jones and Infowars holding both liable following Mr. Jones’ refusal to engage in meaningful discovery with the plaintiffs. The jury was asked only to decide how much Jones and Infowars owed, if anything, for allegedly inducing the harassment and stalking suffered by the plaintiffs. 

A jury in Waterbury, Connecticut, heard testimony and reviewed the evidence for close to three weeks in the case brought by eight families, and an FBI agent who Mr. Jones showcased in his rants regarding the emergency response to the mass shooting on December 14, 2012, killing 27 people. Among the dead included 20 children in the first grade, 6 school staff members, and the shooter’s mother who was killed at her home prior to the shooter's school massacre. 

After the jury awarded $965 million plus attorney fees, the families were seen with their attorneys outside the Connecticut Superior Courthouse. 

Robbie Parker, the father of a murdered first-grader and plaintiff, in this case, was given the largest award of all eight families, receiving $120 million for defamation and emotional distress. Following the massacre, Mr. Parker made public statements which Jones chose to single out and attack on-air.

The award consisted primarily of compensatory damages. The jury was also asked to consider whether to award a separate amount for attorney fees in the form of punitive damages. In the end, the jury agreed, that Alex Jones should pay both. The court has now set a separate hearing on the issue of attorney’s fees, and how much Mr. Jones will be ordered to pay, which will inevitably push the overall award over $1 billion dollars. 

Erica Lafferty-Hochsprung, the daughter of the school principal who was killed in the shooting, spoke outside the Waterbury courthouse after the verdict was announced, saying "There will be more Alex Joneses in this world, but what they learned here today is that they absolutely will be held accountable."

The families' lawyer, Christopher Mattei, recognized that collecting the damages from Mr. Jones and his parent company would be difficult, particularly in light of Mr. Jones’ bankruptcy filings, but noted that there will be "a lot of scrutiny on what assets he has, what was transferred, and what is available" to pay these damages and litigation claims. 

Several family members testified about the emotional stress and anxiety caused when they were pursued, searched out online, and threatened by people who believed Jones' false claims and that the shooting was fake, and the families were paid “crisis actors.”

Many described being emotionally distraught by slanderous claims that their children were still alive or had never existed. Some of the families’ members, who testified, told the jury that they had suffered debilitating emotional distress and had become withdrawn, paranoid, or scared of strangers, and some moved to escape the barrage of threats by Jones’ disciples. 

During the trial, Jones took the stand and acknowledged that had previously promoted ideas that he said he now knows were untrue, but he also defiantly stated that he was done apologizing.

During the Trial, Jones’s press conferences outside the courthouse, and his on-air rants after each court session became an unwelcome event for the Judge who later placed a gag order on Mr. Jones. Jones previously used these soapbox opportunities to make wild claims that his trial was just the tip of the iceberg for a much larger plan of politicians to shut down independent media outlets.

The jury also heard from Infowars staffers and on-air personalities about frightening outbursts they witnessed from Jones' demonstrating his hostility and anger in the office, his desire to publish unverified evidence of conspiracies, and the large amounts of money that Infowars' earns in sales and revenue.

Alex Jones and his Infowars companies have filed for federal bankruptcy protection, which generally triggers an automatic stay of proceeding or a so-called pause, however, an agreement struck in bankruptcy court has allowed this and other Sandy Hook defamation cases to move forward. One case in Texas bought against Jones by other family members resulted in an award of $49 million dollars, and yet another will move forward in Texas within the next few months.