AUSTIN, Texas — Lawyers for relatives of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims asked a judge Wednesday to order Infowars host Alex Jones to appear at a deposition and have him arrested if he doesn't, after Jones failed to show up at the proceeding after citing undisclosed medical conditions.
Jones was scheduled to testify at the deposition Wednesday and Thursday in Austin, Texas, where Infowars is based, in connection with the relatives' defamation lawsuit against him for calling the 2012 school massacre a hoax. A judge found Jones liable for damages in November and a trial on how much he should pay the families is set to begin in August.
Christopher Mattei, an attorney for the relatives, said in a court filing that Jones didn't show up Wednesday. Mattei asked a Connecticut judge for an emergency order requiring Jones to appear at the deposition Thursday and order him to be arrested and brought in to testify if he fails to show up again.
In an email to The Associated Press, Mattei said the judge, Barbara Bellis, ordered Jones to submit to questioning Thursday and asked the lawyers to submit briefs on whether she can issue an arrest order if he fails to appear again.
Jones' attorney, Norman Pattis, said in a statement Wednesday that Jones was at “a medical appointment.”
On Tuesday, Pattis asked in a court filing that the deposition be postponed, because Jones was under the care of a doctor for undisclosed medical conditions that require “immediate, and possibly, emergency testing,” and the doctor's opinion was that Jones should not appear at the deposition. Bellis denied the request.
Jones, however, broadcasted his daily show Tuesday from the Infowars studio in Austin, Smith confirmed in a court filing Wednesday.
“The Court’s order in this case that a noticed deposition will go forward, and its denial of Mr. Jones’s Motion ... constitute orders to appear for deposition, which Mr. Jones has flouted,” Mattei wrote in a court filing Wednesday. “The Court has authority under the Connecticut Practice Book and inherent authority to enforce its own orders.”
Twenty first graders and six educators were killed in the Newtown, Connecticut, shooting. The families of eight of the victims and an FBI agent who responded to school sued Jones, Infowars and others, saying they have been subjected to harassment and death threats from Jones’ followers because of the hoax conspiracy.
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