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families’ members, who testified, told the jury that they had suffered debilitating emotional distress and had become withdrawn, paranoid, or scared of strangers, and some moved to escape the barrage of threats by Jones’ disciples.
