State Supreme Court won’t hear Infowars appeal

Alex Jones Alex Jones Photo: AP Photo / Jose Luis Magana Photo: AP Photo / Jose Luis Magana Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close State Supreme Court won’t hear Infowars appeal 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

NEWTOWN — The state Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal of conspiracy theorist and Infowars host Alex Jones that his free speech rights have been violated by a lawsuit brought against him by the families of the Sandy Hook tragedy.

In a briefly worded letter, Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Robinson denied the application for appeal by Jones’ lawyer, Jay Wolman.

Wolman and Christopher Mattei, who represents the Sandy Hook families, were in court Thursday afternoon on other matters in the case and declined comment on Robinson’s decision.

In their lawsuit, eight families of children who died in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School at the hands of shooter Adam Lanza accuse Jones of defaming them by arguing on his Texas-based web program Infowars that the shooting was a hoax, and “inciting others to act on these malicious lies.”

Jones has claimed in court that he no longer believes the massacre was faked, and that he has the right to have been wrong about it.

“Wolfgang Halbig is an experienced investigator who claimed that his investigation led to the conclusion that the shooting was a hoax,” Jones’ appeal application states. “Mr. Jones and the other defendants are alleged to have reported on Halbig’s theory by having him as a guest on a radio show, disclosing his website’s URL, and sending videographer(s) and a reporter to document his activities. Plaintiffs claim that reporting the theory implies that Plaintiffs fabricated the deaths of their loved ones.”

The application continues that a ruling by Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis ordering Jones and other defendants to turn over documents and other materials in the case permits “plaintiffs to take virtually boundless, unspecific, and irrelevant discovery.”

The families countered that “for more than five years, Alex Jones and his companies profited from broadcasting outrageous lies about the plaintiffs in this case… The Jones’ plea for an appeal established only one thing: their private and self-serving interest in avoiding discovery for as long as possible.”