A judge in Connecticut has suspended the law license of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s lawyer who stands accused of leaking court documents from the Sandy Hook defamation trial, CNN reported.
The files allegedly contained two years of text messages from Jones, Sandy Hook family medical records and other discovery items related to the trial that were confidential.
Jones and his production company were ordered to pay $965 million plus $473 in punitive damages to the families of the victims of the Sandy massacre over promoting the falsehood that the 2012 school shooting was a hoax, NBC News reported in November.
The Connecticut lawsuit was brought against Jones and his company Free Speech Systems for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and violations of the state Unfair Trade Practices Act. The plaintiffs testified in court that Jones profited off his lies that the school shooting never happened while they were harassed and abused by those who believed him.
“At a basic level, attorneys must competently and appropriately handle the discovery of sensitive materials in civil cases,” Judge Barbara Bellis said in a court order suspending lawyer Norman Pattis’ license. The suspension is for six months.
“Otherwise, our civil system, in which discovery of sensitive information is customary and routine, would simply collapse,” the judge added.
Bellis rejected Pattis’ claim that the records were released accidentally. She charged that Pattis had “failed to provide even the minimal amount of attention and care required when it came to handling the plaintiffs’ sensitive discovery materials.”
“We cannot expect our system of justice or our attorneys to be perfect but we can expect fundamental fairness and decency,” Bellis said. “There was no fairness or decency in the treatment of the plaintiffs’ most sensitive and personal information, and no excuse for [Pattis’] misconduct.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)