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Alex Jones must pay $4M in damages for Sandy Hook hoax claims

bbc.com

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Re: Alex Jones must pay $4M in damages for Sandy Hook hoax claims

#121

Post by frellus »

superb-owl wrote: post #12
drexlspivey wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am astounded how someone can sit on the stand and spew lie after lie after lie under oath with no repercussions.

I mean...$4M is definitely a repercussion. But yeah, TBH he should probably spend time in jail.

This wasn't a criminal trial.

Although we all want to see our "political enemies" and indecent people everywhere punished, we have to stop calling for people to be jailed without clear crimes being committed. The whole "lock her up" for Hillary that the Trump crowd chanted disgusts me, but likewise so do people calling for Trump to be prosecuted and jailed when they cannot pin an actual crime on him.

If we turn into a nation of "show me the man, I'll show you the crime" I will bugger off to a small island somewhere. We cannot rule by mob sentiment, laws matter.

Re: Alex Jones must pay $4M in damages for Sandy Hook hoax claims

#122

Post by frellus »

kordlessagain wrote: post #16
drexlspivey wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am astounded how someone can sit on the stand and spew lie after lie after lie under oath with no repercussions.

His functional processes are corrupt.

This is spot on. There is something really psychologically off with him, watching how he behaved on the stand:

* fidgeted with everything * couldn't focus * couldn't follow simple instructions * would forget about something said a short time ago * has extreme paranoia, borderline schizophrenic to me

Re: Alex Jones must pay $4M in damages for Sandy Hook hoax claims

#123

Post by chmod600 »

titzer wrote: post #97
chmod600 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lying to investigators shouldn't be a crime, in my opinion. It too often creates a situation where you can just investigate someone endlessly, find no real evidence, and then convict them of lying based on some flimsy inconsistencies in their statements. I suppose some specific kinds of lies could be crimes, but there should be a high bar for both the type of lie told as well as the certainty that it's really a lie.

That's why there is the fifth amendment. > there should be a high bar for both the type of lie told as well as the certainty that it's really a lie. Perjury convictions are a fairly high bar. People don't generally get charged for "flimsy inconsistencies in their statements." Prosecutors, judges, and juries don't have endless time to spend on getting someone.

Lying to an investigator is not perjury. It's a separate crime.

Re: Alex Jones must pay $4M in damages for Sandy Hook hoax claims

#124

Post by frellus »

dawnerd wrote: post #7
lalaland1125 wrote: post #2

That's probably still a net profit for Alex Jones. According to the documents discussed in court he makes $800,000 a day from his show. If anything, he probably made more covering his own trial than what the trial cost.

That per day figure is misleading since it was a particularly good couple of days. But yeah he still made tons of money over the years at the families’ expense.

Correct, the Plaintiff's lawyer pointed to the $800k day and said, "on average you make this" and I firmly believe Jones was confused, and tried to correct it, but the goal of the lawyer was to inflate the income numbers to maximize damages.

That being said, I don't understand how they couldn't have gotten all general accounting records as part of discovery, and if they didn't why they couldn't force a forensic audit by court order.

Re: Alex Jones must pay $4M in damages for Sandy Hook hoax claims

#126

Post by jliptzin »

vannevar wrote: post #70
jliptzin wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That went terribly for him? $4 million is pocket change for him, he made way more than that off his nonstop lies and conspiracy theories

The punitive damages are yet to be determined, and unlike the compensatory phase, for punitives the jury can take into account his net worth.

Good to know. Do the punitive damages also go to the plaintiffs? Or does it just get funneled into the government slush fund?

Re: Alex Jones must pay $4M in damages for Sandy Hook hoax claims

#127

Post by faeriechangling »

bena wrote: post #75
faeriechangling wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having followed the case, him being absolutely demolished in court repeatedly is no shock given his brazen contempt for the court system and his refusal to abide by any sort of law or rules. I’m most shocked at his own sheer self-destructiveness. What is he going to do now? Claim the courts conspired against him?

Why are you shocked? So far, up until this point, he's been able to escalate his behavior with absolutely no lasting consequence. He probably honestly thought he could bluster his way through this. He probably still thinks he can scream his way out of it. It's literally Jerry's move in Rick and Morty, "I just kept crawling and it kept working"

It was seeing him be at the top of his niche for so long, him running a successful business with a handful of employees, him just remaining this counterculture icon who seemed to get away with everything, it made me think that he might be more calculated than people gave him credit for.

But more than anything, it was this insincere apology he gave regarding sandy hook, after which he seemed to feel above the Sandy Hook’s Survivors right to confront him in a court of law. I just sort of hoped he was a better and smarter person, maybe somebody who believed some kooky things but was doing a show mostly to entertain people and didn’t mean badly. Just seeing such hateful stupidity is surprising and disappointing to me. I might be too naive.

Re: Alex Jones must pay $4M in damages for Sandy Hook hoax claims

#130

Post by rajup »

Rackedup wrote: post #128
rajup wrote: post #45

This is a great and a just decision, but it seems like the damages are a far cry from the $150 million claimed. Were there any sentence limits for the charges against this guy?

Still a crazy amount....

Relative to what? The point of a punishment is to dissuade similar actions in the future. This amounts to nothing more than a slap on the wrist, and is not appropriate for the gravity of the crime.
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