Judge denies Alex Jones’ request for extension, orders conspiracy theory opportunist to turn over records to Sandy Hook families

courant.com

A superior court judge Friday deferred her order that would have denied Alex Jones the chance to argue to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the families of Sandy Hook victims after his new attorney promised to turn over nearly 40,000 emails by early next week.

In an unusual hearing in Superior Court in Waterbury, Jones’ recently-appointed attorney Norm Pattis said his client wasn’t trying to stall the proceedings or ignore the judge’s orders to produce records but instead was just poorly represented.

“Some of the things that occurred weren’t Jones’ fault or my fault,” Pattis said. “Alex Jones was under the impression that full compliance had been done in February.”

Judge Barbara Bellis scheduled the hearing Friday to referee the ongoing battle to get Jones to turn over emails and other documents that he got following the Sandy Hook massacre in December of 2012. Previous lawyers for Jones had asked for at least two extensions to produce the documents and had yet to produce anything. When a third deadline was missed this week, Bellis granted a motion filed by the plaintiffs’ attorney’s to sanction Jones by denying him the opportunity to eventually argue to dismiss the case.

“I’m struggling to find any good faith on the part of the defendant,” Bellis said. “Nobody in this room wants to be manipulated. This defendant has blown past court deadlines and still hasn’t produced a single piece of paper for discovery.”

The plaintiffs include the parents of four children killed at the Newtown school: Jacqueline and Mark Barden, parents of Daniel; Nicole and Ian Hockley, parents of Dylan; Francine and David Wheeler, parents of Ben; and Jennifer Hensel and Jeremy Richman, parents of Avielle Richman. Other plaintiffs are relatives of slain first-grade teacher Victoria Leigh Soto; Erica Lafferty-Garbatini, daughter of slain Principal Dawn Hochsprung; and William Aldenberg, a longtime FBI agent and a first responder.

The lawsuit alleges a campaign of “abusive and outrageous false statements in which Jones and the other defendants have developed, amplified and perpetuated claims that the Sandy Hook massacre was staged and that the 26 families who lost loved ones are paid actors who faked their relatives’ deaths.” The lawsuit also accuses Jones of orchestrating a sustained attack that lasted for years, accusing family members of being actors, stating as fact that the shooting was a hoax and inciting others to act on those claims.

The families say Jones knew the claims were false but that he kept perpetuating them because it was good for his ratings, drew advertisers and made him money.

Lawyers from the firm of Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder are seeking emails and tips that Jones received following the shooting. Pattis said there are more than 9.3 million emails that need to be culled in the search for specific ones that name Sandy Hook victims or their families and Adam Lanza, among others.

Pattis said so far at least 80,000 emails have been found, and they now need to be reviewed to see if they are protected by attorney/client privilege.

Before Friday, Jones’ legal team had not mentioned the large volume of emails that needed to be reviewed or the time-consuming process to search for any emails regarding the Sandy Hook family members.

“It’s probably a more difficult task than any of us thought. Why we didn’t hear about this issue sooner is the question,” Bellis said.

But attorney Alinor C. Sterling of Koskoff said there were at least six previous court dates when someone from the Jones side could have mentioned the difficulty of the task, and no one did.

“We have pushed hard for expedited discovery, and that hasn’t happened,” Sterling said.

Pattis told the judge that he would turn nearly 40,000 emails over to the plaintiffs’ attorneys by early next week. Bellis scheduled another hearing for Tuesday to see if “that first step in good faith” had been taken.