HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Lawyers for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones have been charged with improperly handing over confidential documents containing medical records of relatives of Sandy Hook victims to other Jones lawyers in Connecticut, Connecticut. Suspended from practicing law in law for six months. Elementary school shooting.
On Thursday afternoon, a ruling by Judge Barbara Bellis came after Jones was sued by the family for repeatedly calling the shooting a hoax on the Infowars show, resulting in Jones being ordered to pay. Over $1.4 billion in damages After a jury trial in Connecticut last year.
Berris said New Haven-based attorney Norm Pattis failed to protect confidential family records in violation of her order limiting access to documents for attorneys in Connecticut cases. She called his actions “a disastrous failure” and “inexcusable”.
“We cannot expect the justice system or lawyers to be perfect, but we can expect basic fairness and decency,” the judge wrote. “There was no fairness or dignity in Plaintiff’s handling of the most sensitive personal information and no excuse for Defendant’s (Patis’) wrongdoing.”
Pattis said in a text message on Friday that he would challenge the discipline and seek a suspension of punishment while he challenges it.
“I look forward to the appeal review,” he wrote in a subsequent email to The Associated Press.
in the meantime August hearing on possible discipline For the release of the record, Pattis exercised his Fifth Amendment right to self-incrimination and declined to answer the questions. said the release of the record was a “silly mistake”.
A spokeswoman for the Sandy Hook family’s attorney said she had no comment on Pattis’ suspension.
Pattis is currently representing one of the members of the Proud Boys extremist group facing criminal charges in connection with the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol. court in Washington it is in progress. It was not immediately clear how the suspension would affect the case. Pattis said he had notified a judge in Washington of the disciplinary action.
On December 14, 2012, 20 first graders and six school personnel were killed in a shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Relatives of the eight victims, as well as FBI agents who responded to the shooting, have accused Jones and his Austin, Texas-based company, Free Speech Systems, of libel and emotional distress over the hoax allegations. He sued, claiming that he had given it to him.
plaintiff testifying at a month-long trial About years of being threatened and harassed by people who denied there was a shooting. Strangers showed up at some of their homes and confronted them in public. People threw abusive comments at them on social media and in emails. Some received death threats and rape threats.
Attorneys for the Sandy Hook family provided Pattis with approximately 400,000 pages of documents, including approximately 4,000 pages containing plaintiffs’ medical records, as part of the discovery in this case. Bellis restricted access to records to attorneys in the Connecticut lawsuit.
Last May, Pattis’ office sent an external hard drive containing the records to Jones and Free Speech System bankruptcy attorneys in Texas, Bellis said.
Bankruptcy attorney Kyung Lee later filed a similar lawsuit against Jones’ hoax allegations brought in Texas by the parents of another child killed in the massacre. I gave the hard drive to No Raynal. Raynal then sent the papers to the Sandy Hook family attorney in Texas.
The Texas lawsuit went to trial over the summer, and Jones was ordered to pay his parents. About $50 million in damages.
Bellis is also deciding whether Reynal should be suspended from practicing law in Connecticut, even though he is based in Houston. said he mistakenly sent records to the Sandy Hook family’s Texas attorney and should not be disciplined.
Jones has said he plans to appeal both verdicts.Personally Jones and the Free Speech System both now seek bankruptcy protection.