Accommodation New Zealand introduces
Jones also reported loans totaling more than $50m in an apparent effort to make it look as though he is worth less than he is, and he failed to disclose monetary records that Pettingill needed to form his assessment, the expert testified.
However, $4.1m may not be all that Jones is ordered to pay. That amount is to compensate the parents of the plaintiffs Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, parents of six-year-old Jesse Lewis.
But the parents are also seeking punitive damages, which can be awarded in addition to compensation for what a jury believes was especially egregious behavior by a defendant.
Jurors were to begin deliberating what in effect is a second verdict after Pettingill got off the witness stand late Friday morning.
The bankruptcy declaration paused a similar but much larger defamation suit brought by multiple Sandy Hook families in Connecticut where, as in Texas, he has already been found liable. He also faces another case brought by other parents in Texas.
Bankston on Thursday also said the congressional committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol had requested that he provide the panel with the texts from Jones, a prominent supporter of former president Donald Trump.
Bankston said he intended to comply with the request unless a judge ordered he do otherwise. It was unclear if or when that might happen.
