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Why Alex Jones Lost the Sandy Hook Lawsuits — Transcript

by LegalEagle · 3,662 words · 563 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00so it looks like alex jones is going to
0:01have to pay a huge amount of money to
0:03the parents of the children that were
0:05killed in the sandy hook massacre and
0:07this isn't a case that it wasn't at all
0:09clear that alex jones was going to lose
0:12so how did he snatch defeat from the
0:15jaws of victory well you have to hand it
0:17to him he just achieved something that's
0:19so rare in texas legal circles that one
0:21lawyer called it a unicorn in the law
0:23one lawyer said none of the lawyers i've
0:25spoken with have ever had this happen
0:26but we've never seen such a blatant
0:28disregard for the court's authority the
0:29way we have here so what did jones do in
0:33this lawsuit well first of all there's
0:35four lawsuits that were filed by family
0:36members of three children killed in the
0:38shooting at sandy hook elementary school
0:39in 2012 and despite the verifiable fact
0:42that six adults and 20 children were
0:44murdered by a lone gunman jones has
0:46repeatedly accused sandy hook families
0:47of being crisis actors calling the event
0:50a giant hoax and a false flag operation
0:52and several families of victims have
0:54already sued jones for defamation and
0:55won in 2019 a court ordered jones to pay
0:58court costs and legal fees to parents of
1:00sandy hook victims and in the current
1:02lawsuits jones has steadfastly refused
1:04to turn over relevant evidence to the
1:05plaintiffs despite court orders that
1:07were meant to expedite discovery jones
1:09has declined to provide documents and
1:10evidence but here's the thing about
1:12court orders you really don't have the
1:14right to decline them even if you think
1:17the court is wrong
1:18[Music]
1:22hey legal eagles it's time to think like
1:24a litigator because after three years of
1:26stonewalling a texas judge has finally
1:28seen enough so rather than allowing the
1:30case to go to trial the judge ruled that
1:32jones flagrant bad faith and callous
1:34disregard of the court's orders has
1:36resulted in default judgments that means
1:39that the judge decided the jones and
1:40infowars have legal liability the three
1:43cases will now proceed to trial solely
1:45on one issue how much money jones and
1:48infowars have to pay for defamation and
1:50intentional infliction of emotional
1:51distress so just how did alex jones lose
1:54four lawsuits without proceeding to
1:56trial well let's count the ways and to
1:58understand why the judge issued default
2:00judgments we need to know the basics of
2:02these lawsuits in 2018 the families of
2:04three children filed lawsuits in travis
2:06county texas where jones and his
2:09infowars media system is based the
2:11plaintiffs in these cases contend that
2:13jones false claims motivated people to
2:14harass and intimidate them for example
2:16leonard posner and veronique delarosa
2:19are the parents of six-year-old noah
2:20posner one of jones viewers lucy
2:22richards left voicemails threatening to
2:24kill leonard posner for his alleged role
2:26in the alleged hoax after posner
2:28convinced youtube to remove one of the
2:29jones videos jones then published
2:31posner's home address and showed viewers
2:33information about posner's family
2:34members the posner family has moved
2:36seven times to avoid harassment from
2:38jones viewers the posner delarosa
2:40lawsuit quoted jones as saying that the
2:42school shooting was quote a false flag
2:44meant to give the government an
2:45opportunity to limit second amendment
2:47rights and jones constantly tells his
2:49viewers and listeners that the parents
2:50of the slain children did not have
2:52murdered children they clearly used
2:54actors i mean they even ended up using
2:56photos of kids killed in mass shootings
2:58here in a fake mass shooting in turkey
3:00or pakistan end quote
3:02naturally the parents of children killed
3:04in sandy hook took objection to these
3:05claims neil heslin is the father of
3:07six-year-old jesse lewis after jones
3:09said heslin lied about holding his dead
3:11son in his arms heslin filed two
3:13defamation lawsuits jesse's mother
3:15scarlett also filed a lawsuit against
3:17jones for saying the school shooting was
3:18quote as phony as a three dollar bill
3:21lewis cited numerous statements where
3:22jones and his contributors implied that
3:24the sandy hook parents were not
3:26genuinely grieving for their dead
3:27children by any measure this is
3:29gruesomely offensive stuff but is it
3:31enough to lose a defamation case well
3:34before we go deeper into these cases you
3:36should understand some basic facts about
3:37what we call the discovery process so
3:40let's say that you want to file a civil
3:41lawsuit against someone you race down to
3:43the courthouse fill out the paperwork
3:45what happens next is not trial before
3:47you get your day in court all parties
3:48get an opportunity to get evidence from
3:50each other this is called discovery and
3:52there are several tools that lawyers use
3:54in discovery to gather evidence and some
3:56information disclosures are mandatory
3:58which prevents the other side from
3:59hiding relevant evidence in texas these
4:01required disclosures are covered by the
4:03texas rule of civil procedure 194 and
4:05they include information like the name
4:07and address of all witnesses a list or
4:09copy of all relevant documents and a
4:11description of the legal theories and
4:12defenses each party may use lawyers may
4:14also make requests for production which
4:16each side must answer by producing
4:18documents and things relevant to the
4:19case
4:20and these requests must specify a
4:22reasonable time and date for production
4:24litigants can also ask parties to answer
4:26written questions called interrogatories
4:28and if you've ever wondered what lawyers
4:29are actually doing all day this is
4:31probably it we spend a lot of time
4:33crafting these discovery requests and
4:35responding to them objecting to them and
4:36reviewing answers to them lawyers spend
4:38more time on these activities than they
4:40do inside the courtroom and there also
4:42be things like depositions where
4:43witnesses must give testimony under oath
4:45and throughout this process all parties
4:47negotiate for limitations on discovery
4:49and they try and force the other side to
4:51answer the requests as written there's
4:53back and forth between the parties and
4:55the court but eventually you're going to
4:57have to answer some of this discovery
4:59simply asserting that answering
5:01discovery requests in general is hard
5:02work and cumbersome is generally not
5:04enough to get out of doing those
5:06discovery responses and all this takes
5:08place long before the parties ever get
5:10to trial where you'll have an
5:11adjudication of the case on the merits
5:14in this case the litigants in the
5:15defamation case all made written
5:16discovery requests in 2018 and 2019.
5:18however in response jones and his
5:20collaborators filed motions under the
5:22texas citizens participation act known
5:24as the tcpa to have the lawsuits
5:27dismissed the tcpa is texas's version of
5:29an anti-slap statute which is meant to
5:31be constitutional safeguard protecting
5:33the rights of persons to petition speak
5:35freely associate freely and otherwise
5:37participate in government to the maximum
5:38extent permitted by law and at the same
5:40time protects the rights of persons to
5:42file meritorious lawsuits for
5:43demonstrable injury slaps are shorthand
5:46for strategic lawsuits against public
5:48participation generally lawsuits trying
5:49to stifle free speech and anti-slap laws
5:52are generally a good thing for freedom
5:54of speech they are intended to prevent
5:56people from using courts to intimidate
5:58people who are simply exercising their
6:00free speech rights media groups and
6:02individual journalists can use an
6:03anti-slap statute to protect themselves
6:05from baseless legal threats and
6:07interestingly while former president
6:08trump has been known to file a meritless
6:10lawsuit or two
6:12and had anti-slap laws used against him
6:14former president trump also used an
6:16anti-slap law in his favor to get
6:19attorney's fees back from stormy daniels
6:21when the court ruled that the stormy
6:23daniels lawsuit was meritless and
6:25infringed on former president trump's
6:27right to free speech in this case the
6:29texas anti-slap law the tcpa was
6:32initially criticized for being so broad
6:34that it allowed defenders to dismiss too
6:36many types of cases including attorney
6:38discipline proceedings and employment
6:40law matters where the issue wasn't
6:41really about free speech but in 2019 the
6:44texas legislature narrowed the scope of
6:46the law hoping to confine it to cases
6:48involving the first amendment and the
6:50tcpa now provides litigants like jones
6:53with an early opportunity to move to
6:55dismiss a lawsuit that infringes on his
6:58first amendment rights and if successful
7:01that person can then receive an award of
7:03attorney's fees so jones and infowars
7:06had a right to file a tcpa motion and
7:08they did so for all four of the cases
7:10the trial judge stayed the proceedings
7:12while jones fought for his first
7:14amendment rights and so far there's
7:15nothing improper about any of that jones
7:17has as many first amendment rights as
7:19anyone else and we might not like what
7:20he has to say but that's why the first
7:22amendment exists to protect people and
7:25their right to say what they want to say
7:28but jones has always maintained that he
7:29had a first amendment right to report
7:31about the sandy hook massacre but his
7:33own statements given under oath have
7:34undermined his defense to defamation
7:37jones first got himself into hot water
7:38during his deposition in one of the
7:40other sandy hook cases and during that
7:42deposition lawyers played damning clips
7:44of jones on his tv show where he was
7:46mocking parents pretending to cry and
7:47calling their tears bad acting and then
7:49you've got parents laughing
7:52then they walk over to the camera
7:55in response to the clips jones admitted
7:57under oath that his statements were
7:58false jones said the media traumatized
8:00him because they were all such great big
8:02liars and the big old media therefore
8:04caused jones to suffer from a psychosis
8:06where he simply made things up about
8:08these families and their children as you
8:09can imagine these kinds of admissions
8:11hurt jones in all the defamation cases
8:13filed by the sandy hook families and
8:15made it easier for them to prove
8:16intentional infliction of emotional
8:17distress
8:18jones argued that he had a right to ask
8:20questions and that he relied on evidence
8:22he found online through news reports
8:24quote they staged sandy hook the
8:25evidence is just overwhelming and that's
8:26why i'm so desperate and freaked out
8:28said jones in 2013. and his argument was
8:31that as a news organization he and his
8:32staff had the right to ask questions
8:34speculate and rely on what others were
8:36reporting in formulating their own
8:38opinions in addition to doing their own
8:40reporting and members of the media are
8:42generally allowed to do just that of
8:44course a lot of these claims were
8:45undermined by some damning deposition
8:47testimony and during the litigation of
8:49these motions jones admitted that all
8:51the factual allegations and the
8:52plaintiff's pleadings were true which
8:54isn't really unusual in a defamation
8:56case
8:57often you know what statements are being
8:59made by both parties so
9:02it's not unusual for a defendant to
9:03necessarily
9:05agree with the factual allegations of
9:07the plaintiff's pleadings it's just that
9:09they disagree that they rise to the
9:10level of a defamatory statement and not
9:12surprisingly jones argued that all of
9:13his statements were constitutionally
9:15protected expressions of opinion rather
9:17than statements of fact and under texas
9:19law courts must consider the following
9:21factors in determining whether a
9:22statement is one of opinion or fact one
9:24the statement must be provable as false
9:26at least where public official or public
9:27figure plaintiffs are involved two
9:29constitutional protection is afforded to
9:31statements that cannot reasonably be
9:33interpreted as stating actual facts in
9:35order to assure that the public debate
9:37will not suffer for lack of imaginative
9:39expression or rhetorical hyperbole or
9:42three where the standard of opinion on a
9:43matter of public concern reasonably
9:45implies false and defamatory facts
9:47regarding public figures or officials
9:49those individuals must show that such
9:51statements were made with knowledge of
9:52their false implications or with
9:54reckless disregard for the truth and
9:56four the statements must be given quote
9:57enhanced appellate review to ensure that
9:59these determinations are made in a
10:00manner that does not constitute a
10:02forbidden intrusion into free speech now
10:04a texas appeals court concluded that
10:06statements by jones and his contributors
10:08crossed the line from hyperbole into
10:10reckless and defamatory and once these
10:12defenses were litigated the courts
10:13determined that the fair reporting
10:14privilege didn't prevent the plaintiffs
10:16from suing jones and infowars
10:18so that meant that the civil suits could
10:19go forward and alex jones needed to
10:21respond to the discovery requests and in
10:23july of 2021 the plaintiff's lawyers
10:26offered to give jones and other
10:27defendants 14 more days to answer
10:29discovery and they even agreed to wave
10:31all objections to the lateness of the
10:32discovery responses as long as jones
10:34answered within 14 days but the jones
10:36legal team merely asked for a copy of
10:38the discovery requests which they were
10:40three years old at that point and then
10:42they failed to make any responses
10:43whatsoever that prompted posner's
10:45lawyers to file a motion to compel
10:46discovery and for sanctions in the
10:48heslin case the court ordered jones to
10:50sit for a deposition and to respond to
10:52discovery and that was in october of
10:532019 jones didn't comply so in december
10:57the court assessed sanctions and held
10:58jones in contempt and that was back at
11:01the time that jones had filed his own
11:02motion to dismiss under the tcpa and the
11:04court stayed all the legal proceedings
11:06while jones appealed that tcpa motion
11:08and jones promised to supplement his
11:10discovery answers as soon as the stay
11:12was lifted if the court didn't dismiss
11:14the case however when the court of
11:16appeals did not dismiss the case he
11:18didn't do so in fact the jones
11:19defendants failed to supplement any
11:21discovery after the stay was lifted and
11:23a similar pattern happened in the lewis
11:25case where the court ordered jones to
11:26respond to discovery way back in
11:27february of 2019. jones was supposed to
11:30have a deposition in march of 2019 but
11:32instead nothing happened in the
11:34proceedings ground to a halt when the
11:36judge assessed sanctions in the lewis
11:37case jones offered up some documents but
11:39each time that happened the documents
11:41were not responsive to the discovery
11:43requests so what happens when you're a
11:45plaintiff's attorney and the defense
11:46just simply refuses to respond to your
11:49discovery requests well under the texas
11:51rules of civil procedure a litigant may
11:53apply for sanctions or an order
11:55compelling discovery when a litigant
11:56refuses to agree to respond to discovery
11:59or refuses to provide answers and
12:01motions to compel discovery and for
12:02sanctions are not rare at all usually if
12:06they're granted they result in the court
12:07actually compelling the party to turn
12:09over discovery or barring the party
12:11resisting discovery from asserting a
12:13certain defense or finding the party and
12:15maybe getting some attorney's fees for
12:17having to go through the fight this
12:19happens all the time because people
12:20don't like giving up information to the
12:23other side but in this case the court
12:25was so exasperated by alex jones's
12:27willful conduct the judge decided to
12:29enter a default judgment instead now a
12:32default judgment is a binding judgment
12:34in favor of the other party based on
12:36some failure to take action by that
12:38party if this occurs a court might rule
12:40in favor of the plaintiff by default now
12:43it's pretty common for judges to enter a
12:45default judgment in cases where a
12:46defendant despite being properly served
12:48simply never enters an appearance or
12:50answers the plaintiff's complaint that's
12:52why if you're sued with a lawsuit you
12:54need to talk to a lawyer because if you
12:55don't respond
12:57you're going to get a default judgment
12:58however here the judge entered the
13:00default judgment because the court
13:01believed that less serious sanctions
13:03would not deter alex jones from similar
13:05actions in the future
13:07the court rejects lesser sanctions
13:08because they've proven ineffective when
13:10previously ordered they would also
13:12benefit defendants and increase the cost
13:13to plaintiff the court held that jones
13:16had shown a consistent pattern of
13:17discovery abuse not only on the three
13:19related cases but in their other
13:20litigation pertaining to sandy hook in
13:22general the court also noted that jones
13:24had failed to answer discovery in a
13:25defamation case involving alex jones's
13:27statements about a school shooting at
13:29marjory stoneman douglas high school in
13:30florida and of course alex jones had a
13:32right to file a motion to dismiss the
13:34lawsuits and he had every right to try
13:36to use the tcpa
13:38it wasn't a crazy argument to think that
13:40the anti-slap laws might apply and give
13:42him a defense but having lost that fight
13:45he had a legal responsibility to obey
13:47the orders of the court and participate
13:49in the discovery process and the lesson
13:51to never piss off the judge is always a
13:54good one the texas court concluded that
13:55given defendant's bad faith approach to
13:57litigation mr jones's public threats in
13:59mr jones's professed belief that the
14:01proceedings are show trials that
14:03entering a series of escalating
14:05consequences would be useless so the
14:07court entered a default judgment against
14:09alex jones the court opted not to issue
14:11sanctions against his lawyers noting
14:13that jones had seven lawyers during the
14:15course of this litigation that basically
14:17alex jones did whatever he wanted
14:18regardless of who was representing him
14:20so congratulations alex jones you played
14:23yourself and that's not all now alex
14:25jones has lost all 10 lawsuits brought
14:27by families of people killed in the
14:28sandy hook massacre in november a
14:30connecticut state court ruled that
14:32because jones disregarded orders
14:33requiring him to turn over documents
14:35he's liable by default the connecticut
14:37judge used the same logic as the texas
14:39court the lead plaintiff in the
14:40connecticut case is erica lafferty the
14:42daughter of the school principal dawn
14:44lafferty hofspuring who was murdered by
14:47the same gunman as the sandy hook
14:48children the other plaintiffs include
14:50william aldenberg a first responder who
14:52jones is labeled a crisis actor and when
14:55there's a default judgment that doesn't
14:56mean the case is over there still has to
14:58be a trial on the matter of damages this
15:00is generally called a prove up where the
15:02winner of the trial has to demonstrate
15:04the actual damages that they suffered
15:06though liability is no longer contested
15:08because you know that was the the
15:10penalty so now both state courts will
15:12now schedule a trial on how much jones
15:15has to pay
15:16jones has already vowed to appeal the
15:17connecticut rulings and he also claimed
15:19that the state courts were conspiring
15:21against him to deny him due process
15:23quote these individuals again are not
15:25allowing me to have a jury trial because
15:26they know the things they said i
15:28supposedly did didn't happen and they
15:30know they didn't have a case for damages
15:33so the lesson is if you get sued you
15:35should actually participate in the legal
15:36process and not obstruct like alex jones
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