This kind of justice with special treatment only encourages people to believe in conspiracy theories
I'm not sure that'll be effective, even though something had to be done
Alex Jones must pay $50m in punitive damages for Sandy Hook hoax claim
71–80 of 360 posts
Re: Alex Jones must pay $50m in punitive damages for Sandy Hook hoax claim
#72No post body was provided.
Re: Alex Jones must pay $50m in punitive damages for Sandy Hook hoax claim
#73No post body was provided.
Re: Alex Jones must pay $50m in punitive damages for Sandy Hook hoax claim
#74The judge found him guilty of withholding evidence and did a summary judgement of guilty, and moved to the damages portion with a jury. Which is strange, skipping over the evidence trial and going straight to damages. They didnt say what the evidence being withheld was, and no video evidence against him. Thats what would have been interesting to see, the videos the case was based on. Banes Law did a good comment on t…
These are not summary judgments, they are default judgments. Alex Jones repeatedly failed to comply with court orders to produce evidence, which resulted in him being in default of the court. IANAL, but FRCP rule 37(b)(2)(A)(vi) very clearly indicates that a default judgment "against the disobedient party" is a permissible outcome of "[failing] to obey an order to provide or permit discovery". Essentially, Jones was…
> but FRCP rule 37(b)(2)(A)(vi) very clearly indicates that a default judgment "against the disobedient party" is a permissible outcome of "[failing] to obey an order to provide or permit discovery
Nitpick: this is a state case and the Federal Rules don't apply, but I think most US jurisdictions have very broadly similar default rules.
Re: Alex Jones must pay $50m in punitive damages for Sandy Hook hoax claim
#75Let me know once he actually transfers a non-zero sum towards either the punitive or compensatory amounts.
Generally, to appeal a judgment, you need to post a bond. Otherwise, the other side can move to enforce the judgment. This seems to be the case in Texas, though it seems the amount of the bond is capped at 50% of his net worth.
Re: Alex Jones must pay $50m in punitive damages for Sandy Hook hoax claim
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Defamation, Slander, etc. None are protected. Free speech protects you from the Government, not your fellow citizens.
This is an incorrect analysis of where the conclusion comes from. Allowing the use of the courts to prohibit slander is a government action. Slander and libel are long standing exceptions to free speech. "Fighting words", espionage, contempt of court, or insubordination in the military are other exceptions that come to mind. The "the first amendment only applies to the government" is an argument that anyone is free t…
> The "the first amendment only applies to the government" is an argument
"Congress shall make no law..." We've extrapolated a bunch from there, but the founding words are pretty clear.
Re: Alex Jones must pay $50m in punitive damages for Sandy Hook hoax claim
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's the difference between free speech and malicious libel and slander. Jones is a total psychopath. What he did to those grieving families is just beyond despicable. Mentally abusing children who survived a murder rampage is way way beyond just dirty politics, propagandizing, and typical grifting.
I can’t tell if he’s a psychopath or mentally ill. Maybe whoever put the guy on air seems responsible on some level as well. We love to point the finger at this guy but a lot of people were responsible for many, many insane productions by him, and no one questioned if it should be aired long enough to realize this would be harmful to the victims’ families.
My armchair assessment is he loves money and he found a herd of morons that is willing to throw millions at him if he behaves like a maniac and says outlandish things. He basically performs like any religious huckster, knowingly feeding people lies for dollar bills. Here he is on JRE walking back his Sandy-Hook-being-fake-claims and he presents as a perfectly reasonable, informed dude: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QzpXMbM-kos
Re: Alex Jones must pay $50m in punitive damages for Sandy Hook hoax claim
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
The lawsuit was filed in 2018 and Jones has multiple videos as early (maybe earlier) as 2016. I'm not sure how this makes any sense. I think Jones is disgusting and pushing paranoia and fear for a living is disgusting, but I can't understand any world where it's just that a person makes a potentially genuine mistake in their opinion/judgement, explicitly corrects that mistake multiple times and then only multiple yea…
> but I can't understand any world where it's just that a person makes a potentially genuine mistake in their opinion/judgement, explicitly corrects that mistake multiple times and then only multiple years after correcting that mistake is sued. Had Jones wanted to make the argument that he made a genuine mistake rather than knowing libel, he could have participated in discovery and trial rather than stonewalling and…
> Had he wanted to argue that he had made an after the fact retraction which reduced the damages suffered by the victims of his libel, he had the opportunity to make that argument, AFAIK, in the compensatory damages phase.
He did, and he made the argument, and played the video in which he claimed he retracted them to the jury.
Re: Alex Jones must pay $50m in punitive damages for Sandy Hook hoax claim
#79The judge found him guilty of withholding evidence and did a summary judgement of guilty, and moved to the damages portion with a jury. Which is strange, skipping over the evidence trial and going straight to damages. They didnt say what the evidence being withheld was, and no video evidence against him. Thats what would have been interesting to see, the videos the case was based on. Banes Law did a good comment on t…
> Which is strange, skipping over the trial and going straight to damages. Well, its unusual for a party with a business and sizable assets to protect to do the kinds of things that lead to default judgement, since that's pretty easy to avoid and potentially costly. But it's not unusual for a court to find default when parties steadfastly refuse to cooperate with court process, and Jones has had default rulings again…
> Which looks a lot like he was afraid that discovery would reveal something much worse than what was at issue in those cases.
And the great irony is that, because of his lawyer's mistake, he has lost the ability to keep from discovery an awful lot of things, so that revelation is likely to happen anyways.
Re: Alex Jones must pay $50m in punitive damages for Sandy Hook hoax claim
#80What happened to his lawyer, who accidentally (?) sent his phone conversations to the opposing party?
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