Connecticut defamation suit against Jones can proceed

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BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A federal chapter choose on Monday cleared the way in which for a defamation lawsuit in Connecticut to proceed towards Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.

The case was filed by kinfolk of some victims of the 2012 bloodbath at Sandy Hook Elementary College in Newtown, Connecticut. Jones has falsely claimed the nation’s deadliest faculty taking pictures — which killed 20 college students and 6 educators — was a hoax.

Jones’ lawyer had sought to switch the case to a federal chapter courtroom, slightly than proceed the case in Connecticut state courtroom. That introduced the primary day of jury choice to a sudden halt earlier this month.

Nevertheless, Monday’s ruling by Decide Julie Manning primarily permits the plaintiffs to proceed the defamation lawsuit towards simply Jones as a person, with out Free Speech Techniques, an organization owned by Jones and a defendant within the Connecticut case.

“The plaintiffs’ rights to have that course of proceed within the Connecticut Superior Courtroom shouldn’t be disturbed,” Manning wrote within the determination, including that the plaintiffs’ claims for damages have been prepared for trial.

A message was left searching for remark with Jones’ lawyer, Norm Pattis.

Chris Mattei, an lawyer for the plaintiffs, praised the chapter choose’s determination. “We’re grateful the chapter courtroom noticed by means of Alex Jones’s brazen effort to dam a jury from being empaneled and holding him accountable. We look ahead to trial,” he mentioned in a written assertion.

Free Speech Techniques, together with Jones as a person, filed for chapter in Texas a few week earlier than Jones’ lawyer sought to have the Connecticut case transferred.

A Texas jury this month ordered Jones to pay $45.2 million in punitive damages to the mother and father of one of many youngsters killed at Sandy Hook, along with one other $4.1 million he should pay for the struggling he put them by means of by claiming for years that the taking pictures was a hoax.

Jones’ attorneys plan to enchantment and attempt to decrease the quantity. In the meantime, in addition to the case in Connecticut, a trial for damages is pending in Texas that was filed by the mother and father of one other baby killed at Sandy Hook.