Post by trueblue on Aug 5, 2022 20:49:03 GMT
Perry Mason is not exactly a realistic portrayal of how courtroom trials and lawyers work. The mid-century TV character played by Raymond Burr would often exonerate his clients in a dramatic last-minute reveal while conducting a cross-examination. In a world where 95 percent of criminal cases are resolved through plea deals, and cross-examinations are rarely so theatrical, Perry Mason moments are all but fictional now. But for one brief, shining moment in a Texas courtroom this week, they became all too real.
Alex Jones, the far right conspiracy theorist, was on the stand earlier this week in his defamation trial. He is facing multiple lawsuits from the families of people who died in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012. During the trial earlier this week, the families’ lawyer dropped a bombshell while cross-examining Jones on the stand: One of Jones’s lawyers had accidentally sent a copy of Jones’s phone records and data to opposing counsel, then failed to take the proper steps to exclude it as privileged after learning of the mistake.
Alex Jones, the far right conspiracy theorist, was on the stand earlier this week in his defamation trial. He is facing multiple lawsuits from the families of people who died in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012. During the trial earlier this week, the families’ lawyer dropped a bombshell while cross-examining Jones on the stand: One of Jones’s lawyers had accidentally sent a copy of Jones’s phone records and data to opposing counsel, then failed to take the proper steps to exclude it as privileged after learning of the mistake.
“Mr. Jones, did you know that 12 days ago, your attorneys messed up and sent me an entire digital copy of your entire cellphone with every text message you’ve sent for the past two years?” Mark Bankston, a lawyer for the families, asked him while he was on the stand. Bankston alleged that Jones had perjured himself based on what was found in the records, which weren’t turned over during the discovery process. Jones eventually replied, “This is your Perry Mason moment.”
It is as satisfying as it is surprising to see the Infowars radio host held accountable in any meaningful way for his corrosive activities. For the last two decades, Jones made a lucrative living on selling a paranoid, alienating worldview to disaffected and troubled listeners, telling them that the “new world order” was behind almost all of their woes in everyday life, and casting himself as a lone truth-teller in a world of malicious frauds and shadowy puppeteers. Oh, and he wanted you to buy survival supplies and diet pills that hawked along the way.