‘It’s a sad day when a court decides it can countermand a doctor’s orders,’ said Norm Pattis, attorney to Alex Jones.
A Connecticut appeals court has upheld a fine of $75,000 against online talk show host Alex Jones.
Mr. Jones was issued the fine on Dec. 15, after he missed a deposition in March 2022, following a lawsuit by family members of the Sandy Hook shooting.
In the lawsuit, Mr. Jones was ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in punitive damages for repeatedly stating the shooting was an orchestrated hoax perpetrated by crisis actors.
Mr. Jones had said he was unable to attend the questioning in his home town of Austin, Texas, due to illness and his doctors’ recommendations. However, according to the state appellate court, Mr. Jones continued to broadcast his InfoWars show live at the same time.
He appeared for a hearing in Connecticut the following month, where he was refunded the $75,000 he had paid in fines.
“We agree with the trial court that the undisputed fact that the defendant chose to host a live radio broadcast from his studio … significantly undercuts his claim that he was too ill to attend the deposition,” Judge Jose Suarez wrote in the 3–0 ruling.
The court subsequently concluded that Mr. Jones’s failure to attend his deposition was willful. However, according to Mr. Jones, the medical issue, that he said included vertigo, prevented him from attending the questioning after his doctors had cautioned him that it could be related to a serious heart problem, although it later turned out to be a sinus infection.
The ruling drew staunch criticism from Mr. Jones’s attorney, Norm Pattis.
“It’s a sad day when a court decides it can countermand a doctor’s orders. Wow,” Mr. Pattis said in an e-mail to the Associated Press, adding that despite the fine being small in comparison with the overall $1.5 billion judgement, “the principal and point he seeks to make here is significant.”
By Kos Temenes
