NEWTOWN — Alex Jones wants a Connecticut judge to throw out two years of proceedings from the defamation case against him by a group of Sandy Hook families, because one of those family members died in 2019 without his lawyers notifying the court.
“…Jeremy Richman passed away in March 2019,” wrote Jones’ attorney Jay Wolman in Connecticut Superior Court last week. “For more than two years, (the families) have had the opportunity to substitute the estate’s executor for Mr. Richman. They have not done so and have, instead, continued to impermissibly prosecute the case of a deceased plaintiff.”
As a result, Jones’ lawyer, argues, “the case has no vitality” and “The surviving part[ies] and the court alike are powerless to proceed.”
Jones’ attempt to thwart the lawsuit on a technicality is the latest development in one of the highest-profile defamation cases in the country. In April the case was in the headlines when the U.S. Supreme Court denied Jones’ appeal to revisit sanctions he received in trial court for his “blood on the streets” rant.
The families’ attorneys at Koskoff, Koskoff and Bieder declined to comment on Monday about why Richman’s name remains as a plaintiff.
If Richman’s name sounds familiar it may be because his death made national news two years ago.
Richman, a neuropharmacologist whose daughter was among the 26 first-graders and educators slain in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, had founded an organization that was funding research into the connection between brain science and behavioral health.
When his wife shared that Richman took his life because he could not overcome losing his daughter, it brought national focus to the depth of grief-based trauma. Richman’s death drew extra media attention because it followed the suicides of two teenagers who survived the slaying of 17 students and staff at a Parkland, Fla., high school.
In 2018 Richman and his wife, Jennifer Hensel were among the six families and an FBI agent who sued Jones in Connecticut for saying on his “Infowars” broadcast that the Sandy Hook shooting was “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax” and “completely fake with actors.”
Jones in court documents has since argued that he no longer believes the worst crime in modern Connecticut history was a hoax, and that the First Amendment gives him the right to be wrong.
A similar defamation suit against Jones brought by two other Sandy Hook families is pending in Connecticut. Separate defamation cases against Jones brought by Sandy Hook parents are proceeding to trial in Texas, where Jones’ internet broadcast business is based.
Wolman argued that the families’ attorneys had six months to give the court a substitute to represent Richman’s estate, and their failure to do so was an “egregious” violation of their “duty of candor.”
“Certainly, they must have learned of his passing. Yet, they have not apprised the court of this nor sought to substitute his estate,” Wolman wrote. “For more than two years, they have improperly prosecuted the case on behalf of a deceased plaintiff, which is impermissible.”
As a result, Wolman argues, “all orders that issued between Mr. Richman’s death and the present date (must) be vacated because the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to issue them.”
rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-334
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Alex Jones’ defense tactic in CT defamation case centers on Sandy Hook father who died in 2019 - Danbury News Times
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