WATERBURY, Conn. — Waterbury is on high alert as conspiracy theorist and InfoWars host Alex Jones is expected to take the stand and testify in his high-profile defamation trial for calling the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre a hoax.
The city’s police department told FOX61 they will be visible outside Waterbury Superior Court, while inside, security sweeps will be conducted. The state has also pulled in more judicial marshals from other courthouses across Connecticut.
“I just don’t understand why it’s going to take them four to six weeks to come up with monetary damages on a defamation case when he’s already been found guilty,” said Waterbury resident John Demsey.
The high-profile trial began last week. Jones and his Free Speech Systems company are on trial in a lawsuit brought by an FBI agent who responded to the shooting and relatives of eight of the 20 first-graders and six educators killed in the December 2012 massacre in Newtown. They say Jones inflicted emotional and psychological harm on them, and they have been threatened and harassed by Jones’ followers.
Jones has already been found liable for spreading the myth that the shooting never happened, and the six-member jury will be deciding how much he and his company should pay the plaintiffs in damages.
“This is just more publicity for him,” said Dempsey.
Meanwhile, Charles Goldson of Waterbury said, “I think that he's a fraud and I think he’s just making money off lies.”
Much of last week’s testimony focused on exactly that. The prosecution grilled Jones’s corporate attorney Brittany Paz to show how Jones profited off his lies through massive audience growth and spikes in sales of his supplements.
Jones, who has described the proceedings as a “kangaroo court” from his InfoWars studio in Texas, created caricatures of Judge Barbara Bellis. He runs the risk of being held in contempt.
Jones isn’t the only one on trial. So is the First Amendment, the right to free speech.
“You can say whatever you want. But you aren’t protected from other people's reactions to what you say,” remarked Duncan Kelly of Waterbury.
Jones is expected to be in Connecticut from Tuesday to Thursday, but it’s unlikely he’ll take the stand Tuesday as testimony is expected to continue with Jones' corporate attorney Paz. The judge has indicated she will decide then whether to further limit what the defense may argue when it comes to the worth of Jones' holdings.
Matt Caron is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at mcaron@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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