HARTFORD, Conn. – A lawyer for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is facing scrutiny from a Connecticut judge, who began hearing testimony Wednesday about whether the lawyer should be disciplined for giving Jones’ other lawyers highly sensitive documents , including medical records of family members of Sandy Hook Elementary School victims. shooting
Attorney Norman Pattis represents Jones in a defamation lawsuit filed by Sandy Hook families against Jones for calling the 2012 shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, a hoax. Twenty first graders and six educators were killed.
The Connecticut trial is separate from a trial in Texas that ended earlier this month with a jury awarding more than $49 million to the parents of one of the slain children. There is also a second lawsuit against Jones in Texas by Sandy Hook families over claims of deception.
Pattis, who did not testify Wednesday, has denied violating Judge Barbara Bellis’ order in the case not to disclose confidential documents to unauthorized persons. Pattis said he was “confident in our defense” in a brief response to an email seeking comment Wednesday.
An attorney for the Sandy Hook families, Christopher Mattei, testified Wednesday that Pattis sent him a text saying Pattis may have violated the document release order. After a couple of hours of testimony before Bellis in Waterbury, Connecticut, the hearing was continued until next week.
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Jury selection before Bellis will resume Thursday for a trial on how much damages Jones should pay the families. Bellis found him liable for the damages last November.
According to court documents, Pattis sent a large number of records from the Connecticut defamation case over the past month to the attorney representing Jones in Texas in similar lawsuits by the Sandy Hook parents over the fraud claims, as well like a bankruptcy case for one of Jones’ companies.
It has not been made clear what documents Pattis allegedly sent. But from what has emerged from court documents, attorney comments and the Texas lawsuit, they appear to include confidential medical records of some relatives of Sandy Hook victims, as well as texts from Jones’ cell phone.
Jones’ attorneys in Texas mistakenly sent text messages from the past two years from Jones’ cellphone to an attorney for a Sandy Hook family. In the recently concluded Texas case, Jones had said he had no text about Sandy Hook. Legal experts say this episode could open Jones up to a possible perjury charge.