Criminal Justice

Alex Jones again absent from deposition in Sandy Hook defamation lawsuit

Connecticut Public Radio | By Frankie Graziano

Published March 24, 2022 at 11:53 AM CDT

In this Nov. 5, 2020 file photo, radio host Alex Jones rallies pro Trump supporters outside the Maricopa County Recorder's Office, in Phoenix. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, April 5, 2021 declined to hear an appeal by the Infowars host and conspiracy theorist, who was fighting a Connecticut court sanction in a defamation lawsuit brought by relatives of some of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

Thursday morning, Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist Alex Jones once again failed to appear at a deposition for a lawsuit filed against him four years ago in Connecticut.

Families of victims killed in the December 2012 Newtown school shooting sued him in 2018 for defamation — Jones once said of the tragedy “everything about it’s fake.” Attorneys for the plaintiffs showed up to the location of the scheduled deposition Thursday and were told Jones wasn’t coming.

“I wanted to inform you that Alex Jones didn't appear in court today for his deposition,” a spokesperson named Artrice Shepherd wrote in an email on behalf of the plaintiffs.

In acourt document filed after Jones missed a scheduled deposition Wednesday, attorneys for Jones said he wouldn’t appear at a deposition until he was cleared by his doctor.

“The physician subsequently arranged for a comprehensive medical workup to be conducted for Mr. Jones on March 23, 2022,” read the filing signed by attorneys Norm Pattis and Cameron Atkinson. “The physician remains firm in his initial recommendation that Mr. Jones neither attend a deposition nor return to work until the results of the comprehensive medical workup are returned, and he opines that Mr. Jones stands at serious risk of harm.”

While a judge in the case has doubted the validity of Jones’ undisclosed illness, she did add a caveat to her ordering of Jones to appear at Thursday’s deposition. She said he should go unless he had to be hospitalized.

“Of course, if, as [Jones’ doctor] indicates, he develops escalating symptoms such that he is hospitalized, that change in circumstance would excuse his attendance at the court ordered deposition,” Belliswrote Wednesday.

She’s made herself available today in case attorneys want an emergency hearing to take up Jones’ deposition absence.

Currently, the plaintiffs have until next Thursday, March 31 to question Jones under oath. That’s the deadline for fact witness deposition and plaintiff compliance in the case.