Appeals court rules against Alex Jones, upholding $75K fine after missed deposition

An appeals court in Connecticut upheld a $75,000 fine against right-wing personality Alex Jones due to him missing a deposition in March of last year Friday.

“We agree with the trial court that the undisputed fact that the defendant chose to host a live radio broadcast from his studio … significantly undercuts his claim that he was too ill to attend the deposition,” Judge José Suarez wrote in the ruling, according to The Associated Press. “We conclude that the court reasonably inferred … that the defendant’s failure to attend his deposition … was willful.”

The Connecticut Appellate Court said Jones still did a live broadcast of his show, Infowars, despite claiming that he was ill and that recommendations via doctor stopped him from being present at the deposition in a lawsuit by families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting, according to The AP. He did go to a deposition in Connecticut the following month and got a refund of the $75,000 in fines.

Jones said he wasn’t at the deposition due to a medical problem featuring vertigo, according to the AP. The right-wing personality said doctors originally thought it was a serious heart problem, but it was actually a sinus infection.

Norm Pattis, Jones’ lawyer, said that there is a good chance for an appeal of Friday’s ruling to the Supreme Court. 

“It’s a sad day when a court decides it can countermand a doctor’s orders. Wow,” Pattis wrote in an email, according to the AP.

Jones’s lawyer said in an appeal brief that trial court Judge Barbara Bells’s finding of contempt against his client, along with the fine, was “manifestly unjust” because of sworn statements from doctors of Jones about him being ill. 

Alinor Sterling, a lawyer for the Sandy Hook families, said that Jones’s disapproval of the fines and judge did not have grounds.

“Jones flagrantly broke court orders — he claimed he was too sick to attend court proceedings when in fact he was broadcasting his show live — and then he blamed the trial judge for doing her job and imposing consequences,” Sterling said in a statement, per The AP.

The Associated Press contributed.