CARELESS DEFENSE: Alex Jones attorney loses license for Sandy Hook “mistake”
The lawyer who represented Alex Jones in his Sandy Hook defamation trial has had his law license temporarily suspended.
Norm Pattis “accidentally” released two years of his client’s text messages and privileged records from some of the victim’s families.
On August 4th, the Connecticut Superior Court issued an Order to Show Cause whether Pattis “violated certain rules of professional conduct arising out of the improper disclosure of confidential medical and other records,” Judge Barbara Bellis wrote.
Read the decision below.
Bellis rebuked the conspiracy theorist’s attorney’s careless handling of the sensitive materials and apparent lack of acknowledgment of the seriousness of his actions.
[Pattis] “failed to provide even the minimal amount of attention and care required when it came to handling the plaintiffs’ sensitive discovery materials.”
During the trial – which Jones lost – the attorney for the plaintiffs, Mark Bankston, admitted to receiving two years of the defendant’s text messages from Jones’ lawyer.
The significance of what Pattis says was a “mistake,” is that it proved that Jones lied on the stand when saying under oath that he never discussed Sandy Hook via text.
In emotional testimony, the still grieving parents were forced to relive the pain of losing their children and the aftermath of Jones’s decade of lies.
The InfoWars host repeatedly called the elementary school massacre a “hoax,” and referred to the heartbroken parents as “crisis actors.”
Fans of Jones – and believers of his lies – tormented the surviving families with death threats and the desecration of some of their children’s graves.
Many were forced into hiding as a result.
Jurors returned a $965 million judgment against Jones in October.
“At a basic level, attorneys must competently and appropriately handle the discovery of sensitive materials in civil cases,” Judge Bellis wrote in her 49-page ruling.
“Otherwise, our civil system, in which discovery of sensitive information is customary and routine, would simply collapse,” Bellis wrote.
Despite the six-month suspension, Pattis currently remains on the legal team for high-level Proud Boy Joseph Biggs as he fights charges of seditious conspiracy for his role in planning the Jan. 6th Capitol attack.
Original reporting by Hannah Rabinowitz at CNN.
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