Texas Court Cuts $50M Alex Jones Sandy Hook Judgment

A Texas court on Friday slashed a $50 million judgment that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was ordered to pay families of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre over his false claims that one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history was a hoax. The Infowars founder can only be forced to pay about $6 million, the Texas Third Court of Appeals ruled in a unanimous opinion, citing state laws that limit lawsuit damages. The ruling does not affect a separate $1.25 billion judgment against Jones in Connecticut, where he was also found liable for defaming and causing emotional distress to relatives of the 20 first-graders and six educators killed in the Newtown shooting. The punishing financial verdicts against Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, in recent years have forced him into bankruptcy, led to some of his personal property being put up for auction and led to him leaving his Infowars platform. For decades, he used the platform to push conspiracy theories about the United Nations, the federal government, gun control and more. Sandy Hook families have yet to collect any money from Jones, who has waged lengthy appeals in state and bankruptcy courts as his company faces liquidation. He remains on air after moving onto new websites and streaming platforms. Friday’s ruling did not throw out the trial court’s finding of defamation against Jones. Still, he called it “a gigantic victory for the First Amendment,” and said he will continue to appeal the case to the state Supreme Court to get the remaining damages thrown out. “I got lawyers who are good constitutional lawyers and they are not backing down,” Jones said. Jones has already tried to appeal the Connecticut judgment to the U.S. Supreme Court but was denied last year. The decision by the Texas Third Court of Appeals left intact more than $4.1 million in compensatory damages awarded by a jury to Sandy Hook parents Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis for defamation and emotional distress. But it slashed more than $45 million in additional punitive damages down to $1.5 million to comply with the state’s $750,000 cap for each plaintiff. The court found Heslin and Lewis did not show evidence that the harassment following Jones’ hoax claims rose to a level that would allow them to exceed the cap. It also said the trial judge improperly allowed the parents to seek higher damages after trial. Mark Bankston, an attorney for Heslin and Lewis in the Texas lawsuit, shrugged off the appeals court ruling as “irrelevant” given that Jones still faces massive financial judgments in Connecticut. “The families care not at all about this irrelevant ruling which affects only two of the 19 claims they all share. Jones still faces over a billion dollars of liability, so this changes absolutely nothing. All it does is highlight the absurdity of Texas law,” Bankston said.

Former Democratic legislator in New Mexico convicted in federal fraud case

A former high-ranking New Mexico Democratic legislator has been convicted of dozens of federal charges stemming from a yearslong scheme to divert money from public schools to a friend’s company in exchange for kickbacks. Jurors reached the verdict Friday, following a trial that included testimony from Sheryl Williams Stapleton’s former colleagues, investigators and tax experts. Williams Stapleton, who declined to testify, could face decades in federal prison when sentenced. Her attorney said all options were being considered, including an appeal. “We’re obviously very disappointed with respect to the verdict rendered by the jury,” defense attorney Ahmad Assed told The Associated Press via a text message. “Based on the evidence we put forward, we were hopeful for a different outcome.” A grand jury indicted Williams Stapleton, 69, in March 2024 on more than three dozen counts that included bribery, mail fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the federal government. Those were on top of money laundering, racketeering and other charges filed in 2021 by state prosecutors. A trial in that case is scheduled for October. A former state House majority leader and an administrator with the state’s largest public school district, in Albuquerque, Williams Stapleton was first elected in 1994. She resigned from the House two days after search warrants were served at her home during summer 2021, and Albuquerque Public Schools fired her. Prosecutors said the district paid more than $3 million to Robotics Management Learning Systems LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based company at the center of the state and federal cases. Most of that money came from federal funds meant for vocational education programs. As the school district’s career and technical education director, Williams Stapleton made sure money for those programs went to Robotics, which was owned by her friend and co-defendant Joseph Johnson, prosecutors said. Williams Stapleton was accused of ushering the company’s invoices through the procurement process. Johnson was accused of providing blank checks to Williams Stapleton, who in turn wrote about 230 checks totaling $1,152,506 “for her own benefit,” according to the indictment. Johnson testified Tuesday that he was unaware that Williams Stapleton withdrew more than $1 million from his company’s checking accounts between 2013 and 2020. He claimed that he lost focus on the business after his son was killed in a car crash in 2016. Johnson told jurors that he relied on his office manager and that she was the one who mailed the blank checks to Williams Stapleton. Johnson was found guilty of similar charges as Williams Stapleton, including bribery and money laundering. Williams Stapleton’s attorney, Ryan Villa, told jurors that his client stole money from Johnson’s company but did not steal from state and federal taxpayers as alleged by prosecutors. Prosecutors also presented evidence that both Williams Stapleton and Johnson failed to report thousands of dollars in payments from Robotics on their federal income tax returns. Assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Federici said at the start of the trial that about 73% of the more than $3 million the company received from the school district and federal vocational training funds was profit. He said the co-defendants split that for their own use. Investigators found that most of the money in Robotics’ checking account came from federal education funds the company obtained through contracts with the school district. Prosecutors presented video from a stakeout of the company’s Albuquerque post office box that showed Williams Stapleton checking the company’s mail.