Alex Jones loses two Sandy Hook lawsuits

Infowars host Alex Jones has lost two lawsuits brought against him by the parents of children killed in Sandy Hook shooting, after he routinely failed to produce evidence to support his claims that the incident was a hoax.

In 2018, Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa filed a defamation suit against Jones for his lies surrounding the 14 December 2012 school shooting in Connecticut, in which they lost their six-year-old son Noah along with 19 other children and six adults. Scarlett Lewis, who lost her six-year-old son Jesse in the shooting, also filed a case against Jones.

Judge Maya Guerra Gamble ordered a default judgement on Monday against Jones, finding him and his outlet liable for damages after he repeatedly failed to hand over documents for discovery, reported the Huffington Post.

Lambasting him for his unwillingness to turn over the documents, the judge said that he lost the case by default because “an escalating series of judicial admonishments, monetary penalties, and non-dispositive sanctions have all been ineffective at deterring the abuse.”

Appearing before the court on 31 August, the plaintiff’s lawyer Mark Bankston sought sanctions against Jones for violating the rules on pretrial discovery and for withholding vital information that was first requested in 2018.

“We still don’t have the most basic information about this case”, said Mr Bankston arguing that Mr Jones failed to provide a wide range of requested evidence, including video of the on-air discussions about Sandy Hook, relevant transcripts and content of social media accounts.

Though Jones claimed in 2019 that a “form of psychosis” caused him to believe the Sandy Hook massacre was staged, the damage was already done. The plaintiffs in this case, Mr Pozner and Ms De La Rosa, said that as a result of Jones’s claims, their family was harassed and forced to relocate multiple times.

These are not the only cases brought against Jones.

A total of nine families who lost their relatives in the 2012 shooting have filed lawsuits against him and his outlet seeking damages. Since then, he has had multiple legal setbacks and was ordered to pay nearly $150,000 in legal fees for his failure to provide discovery documents.