I was already having a decent Friday before I read this news, now I can have a great weekend.
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It’s a civil lawsuit, not a criminal prosecution. He’s not going to jail over this but with luck he might yet end up on the street.
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Here, Alex. Have a cappuccino and a hug while I play my very tiiinnnnnyyyy violin just for you.
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I’m getting a real “Xanathar” vibe off that image.
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That’s better than jail; then the taxpayers are off the hook for his upkeep.
May he not be found living in a box under a bridge. That would be terrible. /s
ETA: tyop
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The good thing about this ruling is that he can’t claim anything anymore, at least as far as this court is concerned. For them, he’s done. He had his chance to put up a defense and he refused to cooperate, and they’re not going to give him a forum.
He gets no trial. He gets no chance to call witnesses or cross examine anyone. That’s the price he pays for refusing to make a good faith effort.
I realize he can still whine and moan and hope that right wing outlets will pick him up. But the court has made it clear that all of his previous whining and moaning has contributed to this verdict, and he’s at the point where he’s actively hurting himself by doing more.
This almost never happens, but this is a genuinely good step.
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A jury is actually going to decide what he owes the plaintiffs.
Sure, he’ll appeal and use this to raise money and try to drag this on for as long as possible, but that reduces the amount of energy and money he has for spreading bullshit.
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Good. Though I’m not sure where Huff Post gets the idea that default judgments are a “rarity in the legal world”. I thought they happened all the time, especially in deadbeat dad type divorce and custody cases.
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True, but that jury will not have whatever documents Jones is withholding. Pretty certain the jurors will be instructed that they can infer the documents are damaging to his case, which means they will use their imaginations to speculate how deep the ugliness goes. Jones has probably been advised of the potential sanctions, so there must be some pretty nasty stuff he’s hiding.
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I don’t think it’s even that deep, honestly. People like Jones believe in “everything you can get away with is okay”. There’s no evidence of long term strategy, just a lot of lizard brain reacting followed by making up whatever story along the way that he thinks will get him out of this moment. You see the exact same behaviour from The Former Guy and his various minions. They’re not scheming, just scrambling.
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I don’t think those are relevant to the damages stage like they might have been to the determination of guilt.
At this point it’s supposed to be more formulaic, like the calculation of damages for someone who has a truck crash into their house.
I realize in practice these impressions aren’t necessarily something a jury can isolate. But I wouldn’t be surprised if hiding them doesn’t really help him. He’s lost a chance to gain any sympathy, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the judge’s instructions are what guide the decision, and the judge sounds done with Jones.
But obviously it remains to be seen.
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Seems like it’s also less likely to be reduced in the same way that jury verdicts are. Multi-million dollar jury verdicts make headlines, but the victim often receives a fraction of the award. I’ve heard of jury verdicts of $20+M being reduced to (relatively) paltry sums like $500k in appeal or even just by the trial judge.
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Ooh, this is turning into dominos!
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There’s a lot of truth to this. The man is presumably deeply in denial about the court cases and a hell of a lot of other stuff.
Avoiding/sabotaging discovery is not exactly a deep strategy, though. I certainly think Jones is self aware enough to know if obeying the judge’s discovery orders could have hurt him more than losing a summary judgement.
The damage isn’t necessarily even related to the court case; it could be something that would hurt his reputation with his fans (e.g., the way he had to walk back his lawyer’s comments that it was all an act during the custody hearing). He’s a bit like Trump in this–he can’t handle a blow to his ego.
I also suspect that, if discovery would have been safe, we’d have him on video claiming that he has nothing to hide and they’re out to get him and blah blah blah. We’ll hear that last bit soon enough.
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Y’know, debtors’ prisons were terrible, unjust, cruel ways to slowly waste the rest of a man’s life, and they were abused by the rich to blackmail the poor. I can think of no reason they should ever be brought back.
And yet…
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You need to reprehend people more often.
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I’m under the impression this asshole has expert advice on “how to hide your assets”.
And that that’s why he doesn’t give a fuck about any civil lawsuits.
Edit: mispeling.
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State of mind is relevant to punitive damages, which are likely still on the table. Also if he cooperated with discovery to avoid death penalty sanctions there would be a jury trial on liability where his state of mind would again be relevant.
I agree Jones is not a rational actor in many respects, but this discovery abuse has been going on for months if not years, and has likely been documented in detail by the judge to protect the default judgment from appeal. Jones has likely had the consequences of his litigation choices spelled out to him many times by his attorneys and the judge. He may just be in denial (as evidenced by the revolving slate of his attorneys), but there is also evidence he made a considered decision to risk a default rather than hand over the goods.
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Jones’ behavior towards the court has been pure contempt throughout this entire process; ignoring the judge, wasting everyone’s time, using this as an excuse for his sickening behavior; which is why the judge made this decision. There is almost zero chance that the judge would reverse course to grant this filth-monger one penny of relief now that it’s been decided. And after this decision no appellate judge will even want to hear this case, let alone reverse it. He could be on the hook for every single dollar the jury demands.
I expect we will see seizures (of his assets, not just his pink-faced, play-acting type); foreclosures; and likely a bunch of off-shore holdings. Maybe even a pile of bitcoins. The Treasury Department is not a group of people who would take this lightly.
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wonderful. I can’t say what I think of this {blank} because I’ll be thrown off this place. But I’m sure it’s similar to what everyone else feels.
I hope they take everything he’s got.
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