Sandy Hook trial updates: Connecticut jury hears testimony about Alex Jones and false claims
Judge sends jurors home; testimony to continue next week
Judge Barbara Bellis released jurors earlier than expected Friday. But before she let them go, she explained why Alex Jones wasn’t on the stand today.
"You will recall yesterday that Mr. Jones testified on direct examination and our expectation is that the cross-examination would end today. This morning, the defense decided not to cross-examine him, which is their right. And you should not place any blame on anyone for that,” Bellis said. “The defense does expect to call Mr. Jones in its case at the end of next week. As a result, there is no evidence lined up today.”
Bellis also reminded jurors to “steer clear” of any news conferences happening outside of the courthouse.
Friday morning, Jones was still complaining about the case, and the limits on what he can say, to reporters outside Bellis’ courtroom.
Jones also said that if he could, he would tell the jury to “research history and understand how dangerous it is when they’ll pick one event of speech that they can say is hurtful, to then use that to set the precedent, to try to knock over all the dominoes and take everybody’s free speech away.”
Following Jones’ news conference and the jury’s midday dismissal, the plaintiffs sent a video of the media availability to Judge Bellis. Chris Mattei, an attorney for the families, said the video was sent in case Bellis wanted to take action against the defense. Before adjourning for the day, Bellis asked Jones’s defense attorney, Norm Pattis, if he’d talk to Jones about avoiding interference with the jury and its obligation to avoid coverage of the trial.
The Connecticut trial is scheduled to resume Tuesday.
This story contains information from the Associated Press.
In last-minute surprise, Jones won’t testify in court Friday
Infowars host Alex Jones came to the courthouse Friday morning and was expected to provide more testimony in the lawsuit brought against him by an FBI agent and families of eight Sandy Hook victims.
But then, in a surprise, he left.
Because the plaintiffs were done with their initial questioning of Jones, the defense opted not to cross-examine Jones Friday. Jones' attorney Norm Pattis said Jones will return to the stand when it is the defense's turn to call witnesses.
Pattis believes that testimony will come next week.
“We think that this will streamline the proceedings, lower the temperature level and help the jury focus on what it needs to decide,” Pattis told Judge Barbara Bellis in her courtroom Friday morning.
During testimony late Thursday, Jones insulted plaintiffs’ attorney Chris Mattei as he asked Jones if families of Sandy Hook victims in the gallery were real people who lost real loved ones.
Jones told Mattei, “I’m done saying I’m sorry.”
Outside the courtroom Friday morning, Jones told Connecticut Public going that route would open up what he can say in court.
The plaintiffs aren't commenting yet.
Court is in recess until 11:30. The plaintiffs are strategizing their next move during the break.
Jones was sued by the group of Connecticut plaintiffs in 2018 in response to repeated false statements he made about the shooting. He’s already been found liable for defamation.
Tempers flare before Alex Jones testimony wraps for the day
Plaintiffs’ attorney Chris Mattei tried to get Alex Jones to acknowledge the families of Sandy Hook victims sitting in the gallery as real people who lost real loved ones. But Jones bristled, insulting Mattei and stating: “I’m done saying I’m sorry.”
The back-and-forth continued as Mattei questioned Jones about a poll on his Infowars website suggesting that the next mass shooting might be staged.
Jones’ comments on the stand came shortly after telling reporters during a midday break in the proceedings he has some regrets about the content of his broadcasts dealing with Sandy Hook.
“I’ve said things I probably shouldn’t have said. I didn’t realize the power I had,” Jones said. “And I’ve seen the families, I’ve met some of the families. I think they’re real people. But it’s the media and the lawyers that keep bringing it up and misrepresenting what I said and what I did.”
Judge Barbara Bellis eventually let the jury go, but she kept attorneys for both sides afterward. Bellis told the lawyers and Jones she’d have “no outbursts” on Friday. And if she did, she’d call for a contempt hearing. She then adjourned court for the day.
Jones’ attorney Norm Pattis told Connecticut Public afterward that it was almost certain Jones would return to the stand Friday.
This story contains information from the Associated Press.
On Sandy Hook lies, Jones tells reporters 'I didn’t realize the power I had'
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones took the stand Thursday at his defamation damages trial in Connecticut as he tries to limit how much he must pay for promoting the lie that the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax.
During the lunch break, Jones again complained to reporters about not being able to testify that he is “innocent," but he said he does have some regrets about the content of his broadcasts dealing with Sandy Hook.
“I’ve said things I probably shouldn’t have said. I didn’t realize the power I had,” Jones said. “And I’ve seen the families, I’ve met some of the families. I think they’re real people. But it’s the media and the lawyers that keep bringing it up and misrepresenting what I said and what I did.”
Jones was found liable last year by default for damages to the plaintiffs without a trial as punishment for what the judge called his repeated failures to turn over documents to their lawyers. The six-member jury is now deciding how much Jones and Free Speech Systems, Infowars’ parent company, should pay the families for defaming them and intentionally inflicting emotional distress.
Plaintiffs' attorneys press Jones on false statements that family members of victims were actors
Plaintiffs' attorney Chris Mattei showed jurors a video Thursday of Alex Jones saying that the shooting at Sandy Hook was “phony as the $3 bill” and that families were acting when they cried in public in the days after the shooting.
Mattei asked Jones, “If someone were to falsely claim that a group of families were actors and faked the deaths of their loved ones – that’d be a horrible thing to say?”
“In that context it could be, yes,” Jones said.
Mattei also showed jurors a video deposition conducted in April in which Jones referred to families of victims as part of a “Potemkin village” colluding to stage the Sandy Hook massacre.
Mattei asked Jones Thursday to describe his understanding of what a Potemkin village was.
“It’s like the ‘Truman Show,’” Jones said.
“Where this fake village is plopped down – and everybody [who] populates it is in on the hoax, yes?” Mattei asked. “And that’s what a Potemkin village is, to your understanding?”
“It’s got a lot of definitions, but I think that’s a fair one,” Jones said.
Mattei then asked Jones if he acknowledges saying that the shooting at Sandy Hook was “fake,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “with actors” and “a total hoax.”
“Yes,” Jones replied.
“We just played a video … where you said, ‘It’s not just one parent doing this, but a bunch of parents,” Mattei said. “You chose to say that, nobody made you say that, right?”
“Yes,” Jones replied.
Alex Jones questioned about profits and Sandy Hook lies
Plaintiffs’ attorneys returned Thursday to a line of questioning seeking to connect Alex Jones’ lies about the Sandy Hook school shooting to growing profits on his website.
Mattei asked Jones if he still gets sales reports sent to him via text every day.
“I have not been getting those reports,” Jones said.
Earlier in the trial, Brittany Paz, a corporate representative for Infowars’ parent company, said Jones gets sales report figures “almost every day.”
Mattei asked Paz, "He wants to see them every day?”
“He does," Paz responded.
Her testimony on Friday, Sept. 16, concluded with Mattei asking Paz to repeat what Jones' business model was. “Generally, he’s trying to attract audience to the store,” Paz said.
Jurors were shown a video recorded just hours after police were called to Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012. In it, Jones talked about the shooting like it was staged. He then asked viewers to subscribe to his magazine.
Mattei also asked Jones about shots he and Infowars have taken at these proceedings and a webpage characterizing plaintiff Bill Aldenberg – an FBI agent who responded to the scene of the 2012 shooting – as the actual FBI suing Jones.
Aldenberg is suing Jones as an individual along with families of eight Sandy Hook school shooting victims.
Mattei asked Jones if he believes the FBI is suing him.
“I think this is a deep state situation, yes,” Jones said.
Alex Jones set to testify in trial over Sandy Hook hoax lies
Infowars host Alex Jones is making his first courtroom appearance in Waterbury today.
It's Day 7 of a trial to determine damages owed to families who lost loved ones in the Sandy Hook school shooting. Jones has called the massacre a hoax. Family members of victims said Jones' rhetoric led to them being harassed and threatened.
Inside the courtroom Thursday morning, the Infowars host discussed what he was allowed — and not allowed — to answer in front of a jury with Judge Barbara Bellis.
Bellis talked to him about topics that have already been adjudicated that he can't discuss, including the amount of coverage he dedicated to the shooting. Jones was also instructed not to challenge the basis of the default ruling.
Jones has been in Connecticut this week in preparation for his testimony, but he appeared only briefly outside the courthouse earlier this week and did not enter the courtroom.
When Jones faced a Texas jury last month and testified under oath, he toned down his rhetoric. He said he realized that the hoax lies were irresponsible and that the school shooting was “100% real.”
Twenty first graders and six educators were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
This story contains information from the Associated Press.
Daughter of slain principal says she was harassed and threatened with rape
Relatives of Sandy Hook victims continue to testify in a trial to determine how much Infowars host Alex Jones owes them in damages for repeatedly saying the 2012 shooting never happened. They say those false claims prompted harassment from his followers.
Erica Lafferty is the daughter of Dawn Hochsprung, the school principal killed in the shooting. Lafferty said that at first she felt compelled to engage with people who claimed her mother’s shooting was a hoax.
“For 27 years of life, that woman was my best friend and for people to tell me she doesn’t exist, how do you just let that happen?” Lafferty said.
Lafferty said she’d get letters from people who would call her an actor. Others threatened her with rape.
Lafferty also testified about her mother’s final hours. She said she felt nothing but pride knowing her mom died protecting students and faculty.
Judge says Alex Jones' attorney 'improperly' injects politics into questions on guns
Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis said a defense attorney representing Infowars host Alex Jones is “improperly injecting politics into the case.”
Bellis’ comments followed a line of questioning during cross examination of plaintiff David Wheeler, whose son Ben was killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting.
Defense attorney Norm Pattis attempted to ask Wheeler about him accompanying his wife, Francine, back in 2013, when she was asked to sit in for President Barack Obama during his weekly address.
Bellis said Pattis should ask Wheeler specifically about his own views, not about his wife sitting in for the former president.
“I’m not going to go down the road of politics and Obama and presidential elections,” Bellis said.
She also directed Pattis to narrow his questions to Wheeler about Jones’ theory that the shooting was staged as part of a conspiracy to enact federal gun control. (Jones has since acknowledged that the shooting was real.)
The judge said Pattis was trying to show that the plaintiffs are biased against Jones for his pro-gun position, but the attorney had not yet established that Wheeler even knew that Jones' thoughts about the shooting were related to his position on guns.
Wheeler later testified that in the months after the Dec. 14, 2012, shooting, he'd seen a video of Jones on his show Infowars and understood Jones was claiming the shooting was a hoax designed to further gun control. Pattis then asked Wheeler if he knew Jones’ position on guns.
“I’ve never spoken to him, so I don’t know his position on guns," Wheeler said.
Pattis also asked if the shooting changed Wheeler’s view of guns. “I have always been in favor of responsible firearms ownership,” Wheeler responded. “I continue to be in favor of responsible firearm ownership.”
Wheeler said that he lobbied federal lawmakers to tighten gun laws in April 2013 and that the Sandy Hook shooting did change his views on ownership of military-style assault weapons.
Erica Lafferty, the plaintiff whose name is on the lawsuit, also gave testimony. Her mother, Dawn Hochsprung, was the principal of Sandy Hook Elementary School and was killed in the 2012 shooting.
In emotional testimony, David Wheeler recounts harassment after his son’s murder
David Wheeler, the father of 6-year-old Ben Wheeler who was killed at Sandy Hook, was the first person to testify Wednesday.
He said on the witness stand that shortly after the shooting, he heard there was someone named Alex Jones who was saying the shooting was a “hoax.”
Conspiracy theorists who claim the shooting was a hoax have accused David Wheeler of being a “crisis actor” in a conspiracy to push for gun control. Wheeler has been hounded by people who falsely claim that he and FBI agent Bill Aldenberg, who responded to the scene on Dec. 14, 2012, are actually the same person.
“After the shock of Ben’s murder, I felt like I was underwater and I didn’t know which way was up. You’re trying to get your head around that and to have someone publicly telling the world that it didn’t happen – you’re a fraud and a phony – is incredibly disorienting,” Wheeler said.
“You’re already fighting and I could not understand why anybody in this world would think this.”
Wheeler said he began receiving messages on Facebook telling him to “burn in hell" and that he was a crisis actor. Wheeler said that people have come to his house and that one person knocked on his door demanding to see Ben.
“This person demanded to see Ben, I know he’s here," Wheeler recounted. "I know he’s alive.”
Wheeler also testified about his son's life and said Ben had a “wonderful sense of humor.”
At least two jurors reacted with tears to a story told by Wheeler about his son.
One night, Wheeler said Ben was exhibiting bad behavior, and he wanted to bring Ben up to his room to scold him. That’s when Ben bit him. He said he sat Ben on his bed and told him he couldn’t bite people.
“But Dad, I had to bite something,” Ben Wheeler said, according to his father.
Wheeler said the bite left a scar – one he’s now glad he got to keep.
David Wheeler testifies, judge discusses prospect of 'unpleasantness' from Alex Jones
It’s Day 6 in the trial to decide how much Infowars host Alex Jones must pay relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The families and an FBI agent have sued Jones over repeated false statements he made about the 2012 shooting.
The first witness called to testify was David Wheeler, the father of 6-year-old Ben Wheeler, who was killed at Sandy Hook. Conspiracy theorists who claim the shooting was a hoax have accused David Wheeler of being a “crisis actor” in a conspiracy to push for gun control. Wheeler has been hounded by people who falsely claim that he and FBI agent Bill Aldenberg, who responded to the scene on Dec. 14, 2012, are actually the same person.
Jones hasn’t taken the witness stand yet, but his presence looms over the proceedings.
The prospect of “unpleasantness” from Jones, as the judge put it, momentarily delayed the opening of Wednesday’s proceedings. The plaintiffs brought up comments Jones made outside the Waterbury courthouse on Tuesday and on his show. Speaking to reporters, Jones called the judge “a tyrant.” Jones has already lost the defamation suit by default for failing to produce court-ordered documents
On Wednesday, a person speaking on behalf of Jones said he planned to hold a news conference outside Waterbury Superior Court at 1:30 p.m.
The plaintiffs’ attorney Chris Mattei says he may call Jones to the witness stand either later in the day Wednesday or Thursday.
Social media analyst says Jones tied fear-based messaging to profits
Attorneys for the plaintiffs Tuesday called internet and social media analyst Clint Watts to the stand.
Watts has experience working for the U.S. government countering foreign influence, including analyzing how al-Qaida used YouTube to recruit followers.
Watts said he was asked in January by the plaintiffs to analyze Alex Jones’ network to see how it influences customers to purchase goods.
Attorneys for the families argue Jones repeatedly made false statements about the shooting, including that it was as “phony as the $3 bill” and that family members of victims were crisis actors, to make money.
“If you demonize an individual under false pretenses, for example, you say that they’re acting or that an event didn’t really occur, it makes the audience angry, and then, you strike fear in them,” Watts said. “It’s an existential threat – if this threat is not dealt with, then you as an individual will not survive.”
Watts was then shown a video of Jones speaking to his audience several hours after police were called to the Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012.
“People have got to find the clips from the last two months. I said ‘they are launching attacks, they’re getting ready,” Jones said, in a video played in court Tuesday. “I can see them warming up with Obama. They’ve got a bigger majority in the Congress now in the Senate. They are going to come after our guns. Look for mass shootings.’ And then, magically it happens.”
Watts analyzed that message at the request of plaintiffs’ attorney Josh Koskoff. The plaintiffs cite Google Analytics Data kept by Infowars’ parent company that show Jones’ audience at the time included 49 million users.
“He’s communicating that if you want to understand the phenomenon in which he’s talking about – it’s a fear-based message based on anger, resentment and demonizing a population … [then] the way to understand that is through his subscription,” Watts said.
After Jones commented on the shooting on Dec. 14, he then pitched his viewers on a subscription to the Infowars magazine.
Alex Jones arrives at Waterbury courthouse
Alex Jones was in Waterbury, Connecticut, to answer questions regarding false statements he made about the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. But he won’t yet testify.
The Infowars host was sued for defamation in 2018 by a group of plaintiffs in Connecticut.
Jones verbally attacked the judge upon arrival in Waterbury Tuesday morning. He spoke to reporters outside the courthouse and called Judge Barbara Bellis a “tyrant.” He said she’s making him say he’s “guilty.”
Jones was found liable for defamation in 2021. The trial in Waterbury is being held to determine how much he owes an FBI agent and relatives of eight Sandy Hook victims.
Tuesday marked Day 5 of a trial that’s expected to last five weeks.