By Barbara Goldberg
(Reuters) – A day after Sandy Hook families rejected conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ offer to settle a defamation lawsuit, attorneys for both sides headed back to court on Wednesday in an ongoing battle to force the Infowars host to sit for a deposition.
Plaintiffs are suing Jones in response his claims that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that left 26 dead was a hoax. They have asked a judge to hold him in contempt for failing last week to appear for a court-ordered deposition.
Connecticut Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis at a hearing on Wednesday may also consider the plaintiffs’ request to fine and incarcerate Jones until he shows up to be deposed.
The defamation suit has already been decided in favor of the shooting victims’ families, with the judge saying in November that Jones defaulted by failing to provide documents and is responsible for damages to the plaintiffs.
Jones, founder of the right-wing website Infowars, claimed the shooting, in which 20 children and six school employees were shot dead at the school in Newtown, Connecticut, was fabricated by gun-control advocates and mainstream media.
In response, several parents sued Jones and Infowars, as well as its parent company, for defamation in both Austin, Texas and in Waterbury, Connecticut. Infowars is based in Texas.
Wednesday’s court hearing comes a day after the families rejected Jones’ offer to pay $120,000 to each of the 13 plaintiffs to settle the lawsuit.
Jones’ offer in court records included the statement, “Mr. Jones extends his heartfelt apology for any distress his remarks caused.”
Each of the plaintiffs immediately turned down the settlement offer in court documents, saying, “The so-called offer is a transparent and desperate attempt by Alex Jones to escape a public reckoning under oath with his deceitful, profit-driven campaign against the plaintiffs and the memory of their loved ones lost at Sandy Hook.”
(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
