A judge has prohibited right-wing broadcaster Alex Jones from moving or disposing of assets as he prepares to challenge the verdict and $965 million compensatory award against him by relatives of Sandy Hook shooting victims defamed by his conspiratorial claims that the school massacre was a hoax.
“The court, having found probable cause, hereby orders, that with the exception of ordinary living expenses, the defendant Alex Jones is not to transfer, encumber, dispose, or move his assets out of the United States, until further order of the court,” Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis ordered.
Meanwhile, Bellis ordered Jones and his company Thursday to pay an extra $473 million to victims’ families and an FBI agent for calling the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting a hoax, adding to a nearly $1 billion jury verdict issued last month.
Bellis on Thursday imposed the punitive damages on the Infowars host and Free Speech Systems. Jones repeatedly told his millions of followers that the massacre that killed 20 first graders and six educators was staged by “crisis actors” to enact more gun control.
Bellis earlier issued the order to preserve assets over Jones’ objections. His lawyer, Norman A. Pattis, asked her to delay issuing what is known as a prejudgment remedy until after ruling on Jones’ efforts to challenge the verdict itself or reduce the amount of the award.
Lawyers for the relatives wanted a more far-reaching order, including language that would have required Jones “to bring all his moveable property, whether tangible or intangible, and assets to the state of Connecticut for attachment.”
One of the family lawyers, Christopher Mattei, said of the order in a statement Thursday: “This is the first step in making sure that Jones personally will pay every penny he has to the families he spent years tormenting.”
A jury in Waterbury awarded the unusually large $965 million verdict to relatives of eight Sandy Hook victims and a law enforcement first responder as compensation for a decade of abuse they suffered from people who believe Jones’ broadcasts that the 2012 elementary school shooting that took 26 lives was a hoax. He called the relatives actors in a conspiracy to outlaw gun ownership.
The jury also said the victims and first responder are entitled to punitive damages because Jones recklessly and intentionally broadcast lies, knowing that Sandy Hook denial programming drove increases in his audience and sales at his retail sites.
Calculations provided by the family lawyers to Bellis suggest they deserve, as punitive damages, another $320 million for legal expenses and as much as $2.75 trillion for violations of the state’s unfair trade practices law.
Lawyers following the trial have said it is unlikely Jones has sufficient assets to pay even the $965 million compensatory verdict. But they said Bellis' order will protect what assets he has. In a related trial in Texas last summer, Jones’ assets were estimated to be worth about $270 million.
Bellis’s order protecting assets will be effective at least until a hearing on the question in early December. She has set a schedule for argument on other post trial matters — such as setting aside the verdict, the reasonableness of the $965 million award and the amount of punitive damages — that reaches into December.
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