it’s been a long time since I worked on tort cases. I believe Jones was sued for intentional infliction of emotional distress. I seem to recall damages for such a claim isn’t limited to traditional or pure economic loss, like lost wages, medical bills, therapy, lost future employment. I think damages include mental anguish or mental suffering, which leaves a jury with a fair amount of latitude. It would be interesting to see texas jury verdicts on IIED claims to get a sense for whether this is high or not. Given the egregious conduct, I don’t think the jury award is noteworthy or Hugh.
I don’t agree they this is a case of caveat emptor. Neither Jones would keep on hawking fake cures and enhancements or those products pay him millions to advertise them if not for that many are buying them. I don’t think many are buying that stuff just because they like to buy stuff but because they believe that Jones is a trusted voice. One could blame the people and say they should know better but we live in an environment where there is a lot of different media and it’s not always easy or possible to keep up with many information sources. This is where this crosses over from free speech but a deliberate misrepresentation of facts for profit.
I’m not a lawyer but my understanding is that the Sandy Hook parents have argued this does affect their ability to work as the threats and harassment have meant theyve had to go into hiding at times and unable to work.
That seems like a lot of money. Not sure what math they used to arrive to that. But I guess they're making an example of Jones.
if you have to ask that question then that means you havent been paying attention. you left the part out where he incited his listeners to engage in a campaign of harassing, stalking and make death threats against the parents of murdered children. look who you and commodore are defending here. a guy who told millions of his listeners that sandy hook was fake and that the parents were crisis actors who wanted to take their guns. then his followers engage in a years long campaign of making those parents lives more of a living hell than it already was. its really bizarre to see anyone defending someone like that.
Jones is saying that a $2 million verdict would put him out of business. [LA Times] Alex Jones and his company worth up to $270 million, economist testifies Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his company Free Speech Systems are worth up to $270 million, an economist testified Friday to a jury trying to determine if Jones should have to pay punitive damages to the family of a 6-year-old killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. The same jury ordered Jones to pay Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis $4.1 million in compensation for defamation. Jurors began considering additional punitive damages Friday as a separate issue. The parents want to punish Jones for a decade of pushing false hoax claims that they say led to a decade of trauma and abuse from the Infowars host’s followers. Bernard Pettingill, who was hired by the plaintiffs to study Jones’ net worth, said records show that Jones withdrew $62 million for himself in 2021, when default judgments were issued in lawsuits against him. Although the $4.1-million award Thursday was less than the $150 million the parents sought, it marked the first time Jones has been held financially liable for repeatedly claiming that the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history was a hoax perpetrated to try to bring about tighter gun restrictions. Mark Bankston, an attorney for parents Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose 6-year-old son Jesse was among 20 children and six educators killed in the school attack in Newtown, Conn., insisted that the $4.1-million compensation award wasn’t a disappointment and said that they would be trying to punish Jones in the next phase. “We aren’t done yet,” Bankston said Thursday. “After tomorrow, he’s going to owe a whole lot more.” Another of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Wesley Ball, asked jurors in closing Friday to award an additional $145.9 million, which would bring the total amount in damages to that $150 million target. “You are asked to punish Alex Jones,” Ball said. “You are asked to deter Alex Jones from ever doing this awful thing again to another person or another family — to deter anyone who wants to step into his shoes. “Send the message to those who desire to do the same: Speech is free. Lies, you pay for,” he said. But Jones’ lawyers said their client has already learned his lesson and asked for lenience. The jury’s punishment should be less than $300,000, attorney Andino Reynal said. “You’ve already sent a message. A message for the first time to a talk show host, to all talk show hosts, that their standard of care has to change,” Reynal said. Jones still faces two other defamation lawsuits from Sandy Hook families in Texas and Connecticut that put his personal wealth and media empire in jeopardy. Jones — who was in the courtroom briefly Friday but left before Pettingill’s testimony — told jurors earlier this week that any award over $2 million would “sink us.” And a week ago, his company, Free Speech Systems, which is Infowars’ parent company, filed for federal bankruptcy protection. Lawyers for the family suing Jones contend that Jones has tried to hide evidence of his true wealth and have sued him claiming he’s tried to hide money in various shell companies. During his testimony, Jones was confronted with a memo from one of his business managers outlining a single day’s gross revenue of $800,000 from selling vitamin supplements and other products through his website, which would approach nearly $300 million in a year. Jones called it a record sales day. Jones, who has portrayed the lawsuit as an attack on his 1st Amendment rights, conceded during the trial that the attack was “100% real” and that he was wrong to have lied about it. But Heslin and Lewis told jurors that an apology wouldn’t suffice and called on them to make Jones pay for the years of suffering he has put them and other Sandy Hook families through. The parents told jurors about how they’ve endured a decade of trauma inflicted by the murder of their son and what followed: a home shot at, online and phone threats, and harassment on the street by strangers. They said the threats and harassment were all fueled by Jones as his conspiracy theory spread to his followers via his website Infowars. A forensic psychiatrist testified that the parents suffer from complex post-traumatic stress disorder inflicted by ongoing trauma, similar to what might be experienced by a soldier at war or a child abuse victim. Throughout the trial, Jones has been his typically bombastic self, talking about conspiracies on the witness stand, during impromptu news conferences and on his show. His erratic behavior is unusual by courtroom standards, and the judge has scolded him, telling him at one point: “This is not your show.”
I didn't defend him at all. I simply asked what the calculations were to arrive at the damage number. Never said anything about Jones being right or that he was railroaded or anything along those lines. You have a preconceived notion about my position, so you are reading motive into my post that doesn't exist. That seems to happen a lot around here from a few people.
4.1m (2m per plaintiff) for a lifetime of mental anguish, security guards against the crazies, unable to close on an extreme tragic event forever … seems low
not to bring mojoman into this, but are the North Atlantic global elite funding the lawsuits against jones? Or is it a cabal of child eating, pedo, necropheliacs in the Democratic Party? Did they buy the judge and jurors? I need some help here because I’m clearly not smart enough to understand your point. Has the government violated Jones first amendment rights? I didn’t see that here. Or, is there a constitutional right to unfettered speech free from threat of private civil litigation? Can you point me to that amendment? Or should we outlaw punitive damages …. Which you know, are designed to “p-u-n-i-s-h” and deter. Which are only available under the law when a jury finds someone is guilty of intentional, egregious misconduct or recklessness. I assume you disagree with the finding that Jones was liable for IIED? Frankly, the punitive damages were too low. Given the evidence of Jones earnings, it should have been 9 figures.
In the New World Order, you do not **** with the New World Order; the New World Order ****s with you. I guess Alex Jones messed with the bull and got the horns.
jones is laughing at this whole thing. His legal team will delay and tie things up in appeals. Meanwhile his victimhood will get people like @Commodore to buy his products and fund his defense. When you have a pack of morons at your disposal, you can’t lose. his worry isn’t the private civil litigation. It is the government having his text messages. He only gets stopped if there is criminal prosecution.
