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Connecticut judge orders Alex Jones to pay another $473 million to Sandy Hook families

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Connecticut judge orders Alex Jones to pay another 3 million to Sandy Hook families


Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his firm have been ordered Thursday to pay an additional $473 million to victims’ households and an FBI agent for calling the 2012 Sandy Hook college taking pictures a hoax, including to a practically $1 billion jury verdict issued final month.

Connecticut Choose Barabara Bellis imposed the punitive damages on the Infowars host and Free Speech Programs. Jones repeatedly informed his tens of millions of followers the bloodbath that killed 20 first graders and 6 educators was staged by “disaster actors” to enact extra gun management.

Eight victims’ family members and the FBI agent testified throughout a monthlong trial about being threatened and harassed for years by individuals who deny the taking pictures occurred. Strangers confirmed up at a few of their properties and confronted a few of them in public. Individuals hurled abusive feedback at them on social media and in emails. And a few obtained dying and rape threats.

Newtown Shooting Infowars
Infowars founder Alex Jones seems in courtroom to testify through the Sandy Hook defamation damages trial at Connecticut Superior Court docket in Waterbury, Conn., Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022.

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Tyler Sizemore / AP


Six jurors ordered Jones to pay $965 million to compensate the 15 plaintiffs for defamation, infliction of emotional misery and violations of Connecticut’s Unfair Commerce Practices Act, which bans misleading enterprise practices and unfair competitors.

Jones has bashed the trial as unfair and an assault on free speech rights. He says he’ll enchantment the verdicts. He additionally says he does not have the cash to pay such large verdicts, as a result of he has lower than $2 million to his identify — which contradicted testimony at an analogous trial in Texas. Free Speech Programs, in the meantime, is looking for chapter safety.

Bellis discovered Jones and Infowars’ father or mother firm accountable for damages with out a trial final 12 months, as a consequence for what she known as his repeated failures to show over many monetary paperwork and different data to the plaintiffs. After the weird “default” ruling, the jury was tasked solely with deciding on the quantity of compensatory damages and whether or not punitive damages have been warranted.

Jones says he turned over 1000’s of paperwork and the default ruling disadvantaged him of his proper to current a protection in opposition to the lawsuit.

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In Connecticut, punitive damages for defamation and infliction of emotional misery are typically restricted to plaintiffs’ authorized charges. The Sandy Hook plaintiffs’ legal professionals are to get one-third of the $965 million in compensatory damages beneath a retainer settlement — placing their authorized charges at $322 million.

However there is no such thing as a cap on punitive damages for violations of the Unfair Commerce Practices Act. The plaintiffs had not requested for a certain amount of punitive damages, however beneath one hypothetical calculation they stated such damages could possibly be round $2.75 trillion beneath the unfair commerce regulation.

In a comparable trial in Texas in August, Jones was ordered to pay practically $50 million to the mother and father of one other little one killed within the Sandy Hook taking pictures for calling the bloodbath a hoax. A forensic economist testified throughout that trial that Jones and Free Speech Programs have a mixed web value as excessive as $270 million.

A 3rd and last trial over Jones’ hoax claims is predicted to start across the finish of the 12 months in Texas. As in Connecticut, Jones was discovered accountable for damages with out trials in each Texas circumstances as a result of he didn’t turned over many data to the plaintiffs.

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Connecticut couple charged in alleged Lululemon theft spree that netted up to $1 million

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Connecticut couple charged in alleged Lululemon theft spree that netted up to  million


A Connecticut couple has been charged in connection with an elaborate two-month theft spree at Lululemon stores across the country that an investigator with the retailer estimates netted about $1 million worth of product.

Jadion Richards, 44, and Akwele Lawes-Richards, 45, were arrested on Nov. 14 in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minnesota suburb of Woodbury. The couple, from Danbury, Connecticut, were charged with organized retail theft after a Lululemon retail crime investigator contacted local authorities in Minnesota.

But Lululemon’s investigator said evidence shows their crimes go back to September and took place in states like Utah, Colorado, New York and Connecticut, according to the criminal complaint.

Attorneys representing Richards and Lawes-Richards did not immediately respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment Thursday.

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Richards claimed he was racially profiled, complaint says

Richards and Lawes-Richards were stopped after exiting the Lululemon store in Roseville, Minnesota, on Nov. 14 when the security alarm went off, according to the criminal complaint. Richards allegedly claimed store employees racially profiled him and the two were allowed to leave afterward.

The Lululemon investigator later alleged the two visited the store the day before on Nov. 13 with an unidentified man and stole 45 item valued at nearly $5,000. That same day, the pair had allegedly conducted four other thefts in Minneapolis, Edina and Minnetonka.

Officers arrested the couple at the Lululemon in Woodbury. The two denied any involvement in the theft, with Lawes-Richards allegedly claiming they were staying with her aunt and had only been in Minnesota for a day.

Officers found several credit and debit cards on the couple, as well as an access card to a Marriott hotel room. Using a search warrant, officers found 12 suitcases in their room, including three filled with Lululemon clothing with tags attached worth over $50,000, according to the complaint.

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In all, the company investigator estimated the couple has taken up to $1 million in stolen product, according to the complaint, which does not detail how he arrived at the high figure.

Couple blocked cameras among other tactics: Investigator

The Lululemon investigator said one of the couple’s alleged tactics was for one of them to distract associates while another stuffed product in the clothes they were wearing, according to the complaint.

Another technique involved the two strategically exiting the store, with one of them holding a cheap item they had bought and the other carrying more expensive products that had sensors, according to the complaint. When the alarm would sound off, only the person with the cheap, purchased item would stay behind and show a receipt, while the other would keep walking with the stolen product, the complaint says.

The pair are accused in eight Colorado theft incidents between Oct. 29 and 30, and seven thefts in Utah on Nov. 6 and 7, according to the complaint.

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The pair are currently being held at the Ramsey County jail in Minnesota, court records show. Their next court appearance is set for Dec. 16.



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Connecticut readers get the shaft from newspaper’s vulgar Jets headline blunder

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Connecticut readers get the shaft from newspaper’s vulgar Jets headline blunder


Ouch!

A newspaper in Connecticut had an unfortunate typo involving Jets linebacker C.J. Mosley’s herniated disc on Monday.

This past Monday, The Chronicle, a newspaper covering Eastern Connecticut, published an AP story on the front page of its sports section in the print edition that referred to Mosley’s “herniated d–k.”

Mosley has missed the Jets’ four games with the injury — the one in his neck, that is.

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Jets linebacker C.J. Mosley speaks with the media before practice in Florham Park, NJ. Bill Kostroun/New York Post

In the copy, Mosley’s injury was not shafted, getting described correctly in the nut graph.

The unfortunate phallacy did not go unnoticed: in an extra twist, the error went viral when it was posted on the X account of David Coverdale, the 73-year-old singer of Whitesnake.

An editor for The Chronicle told The Post that the newspaper would be issuing a correction in the paper.

Last week, prior to the Jets’ loss to the Colts, Mosley spoke about how he hoped to return after the Jets’ bye, when they host the Seahawks on Dec. 1.

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“That’s definitely the goal,” he said. “I’m in a position where I’ve played a lot of football. Me missing this time won’t hurt me as much as another guy that might need this opportunity. It’s about safety at the end of the day. When I go home, I’m Clint Mosley. I’m C.J. I’m not the football player.”

Mosley said the birth of his daughter, who arrived the week after his injury, put things in perspective for him.

“I had a full week of having a normal neck and ever since then every time I’m looking down, my neck’s hurting,” Mosley said. “It puts things in perspective. There’s a lot of life after football. When I’m done playing, I want to make sure I’m 100 percent.”

From head to toe and everywhere in between.

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Another Earthquake Hits CT: Did You Feel It?: CT News

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Another Earthquake Hits CT: Did You Feel It?: CT News


Patch AM CT brings you the breaking and trending news stories from all across Connecticut each weekday morning. At any point, you can find your local Patch and catch up on those stories here.


A second earthquake hit Connecticut this week, and this one was a higher magnitude earthquake than the previous one, according to the United States Geological Survey.>>>Read More.


A collision between a car and tractor-trailer on the highway turned fatal, state police said.>>>Read More.


A suspected drunken driver was corralled by an alert citizen and state police, officials said.>>>Read More.

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Here are the latest updates on Thursday’s storm for Connecticut, including some changes for Friday.>>>Read More.


In Connecticut, there are a few exceptions to what has been a trend since 2019 for retail stores to close on Thanksgiving Day.>>>Read More.


The holidays are coming in hot: One glance at CT’s events calendar would make you think we were already waist-deep in garland and tinsel.>>>Read More.



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