Alex Jones, a well-known broadcaster in the United States for propagate conspiracy theorieswas sentenced this past Thursday to pay fined $4.1 million for spreading lies about a shooting in a school where 20 children and six adults died in 2012.
A jury sentenced Jones to pay the large fine as compensation for the damages caused to the parents of one of the victims of the shooting, Jesse Lewis, who was six years old when the killer broke into the school and ended his life and that of his classmates.
From your podcast InfoWars, Jones spent years spreading the theory that this shootingwhich occurred at the Sandy Hook School in Newtown (Connecticut) in December 2012, it was a “farce”before which several of the families of the victims sued him.
After the complaints began to be filed, the radio commentator – known for his far-right positions – changed his speech and went on to acknowledge that the shooting was real.
Even so, the theory propagated by Jones led several of his followers to threaten and harass the parents of the victimss, including those of little Jesse, whom they accused of lying about the death of their son for political purposes.
The $4.1 million the jury awarded the victims is well below the $150 million they were originally seeking.although a second trial is yet to be held to determine whether Jones is also required to pay punitive damages, that is, for having engaged in particularly offensive behavior.
Last Friday, Jones’s company, Free Speech Systems, declared bankruptcy, in a move that the victims interpreted precisely as part of a strategy to reduce the amount of the then foreseeable penalty.
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