WATERBURY, Conn. — There was more drama and intrigue inside the courtroom for day four of testimony in the Alex Jones defamation trial in Waterbury Superior Court on Friday.
The families of eight Sandy Hook victims and an FBI agent will be awarded money for the pain and suffering they endured as a result of Jones’s lies that the massacre was fake and the parents were actors.
For a third day, Jones’ corporate attorney Brittany Paz took the stand. But this time, rather than the focus being on company data, it was all about Paz’s demeanor with the prosecution calling her out for vague and confusing answers.
On Thursday, FOX61 reported how InfoWars doctored a video thumbnail of judge Barbara Bellis, turning her eyes red. That picture was submitted into evidence Friday. The lawyer for the Sandy Hook parents, Christopher Mattei, asked Paz to describe the photo.
“Well you are sitting next to judge Bellis,” suggested Mattei. “That’s what it looks like,” said Paz.
Paz had trouble answering questions during her testimony.
“Has InfoWars been calling this trial a kangaroo court?” asked Mattei. “I don’t know,” said Paz.
Paz also refused to specifically say if a URL link to the InfoWars website would direct a viewer to Jones’ content.
“If someone were to click on that link it would take them to InfoWars correct?” asked Mattei. “I don’t know, I haven’t clicked on the link,” said Paz.
Paz, who is getting paid $37,000 by Jones to research and represent the company, said she’s found it difficult to get answers to her questions about the company’s operations.
“Do you think you undercharged?” asked Jones' defense attorney Norm Pattis. “I don’t want to say I undercharged but I don’t think I overcharged,” said Paz.
In a tense exchange, Mattei claimed Jones, who’s been spouting off about the trial as it’s happening and InfoWars as a company, have made a mockery of the judicial process.
“On a scale of 1 to 10 how seriously is InfoWars taking this trial?” asked Mattei.
“Objection!” interjected Pattis. “Overruled,” responded Judge Bellis.
“I don’t know how to answer that,” responded Paz.
“Well you’ve got 10 different options 1 through 10,” said Mattei.
“Ten. It’s serious to me,” said Paz.
“Well Ms. Paz if it was that serious to you I think you would have prepared a little bit more, don’t you?” asked Mattei.
“I prepared how I was able to prepare,” said Paz.
DAY FOUR TRIAL
Friday's proceedings were filled with courtroom drama like Pattis covering the court microphone with his hand during a sidebar with the judge and Mattei. The judge had to remind Pattis that all sidebar conversations have to be streamed on the record.
Both the plaintiffs and the defense shouted dozens of objections throughout the day. Some stuck, while most were overruled.
Friday also saw more video clips of the Jones' Sandy Hook disinformation videos.
During one clip Jones says, “The CIA visited Lanza and reportedly recruited him about a year before the shooting.”
In a second clip, Jones can be heard narrating over a slow-motion playback of CNN’s coverage of Sandy Hook by Anderson Cooper.
“When he turns, his nose disappears repeatedly because the green screen isn’t set right,” says Jones.
That sideshow is expected to descend on Waterbury next week when Jones is set to testify. Some of his supporters, who call themselves Info Warriors, have also been spotted outside the courthouse putting bumper stickers on nearby road signs.
Waterbury Police have been stationed outside the courthouse nearly all week, but that presence is expected to be even bigger with the arrival of Jones and given the high profile and emotional nature of the trial.
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Infowars' revenues and website viewership spiked around the time of one of Alex Jones' shows in 2014 when he talked about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting being a hoax, according to documents shown to a jury Thursday.
Jones and his Free Speech Systems company are on trial in Connecticut in a lawsuit brought by Sandy Hook families over his spreading the hoax lies. Jones has already been found liable for damages to the families, and the six-member jury will be deciding how much he and his company should pay the families.
The shooting in December 2012 in Newtown, Connecticut, killed 20 first-graders and six educators.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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