A defence attorney representing far-right conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones in his legal battle with families of Sandy Hook massacre victims issued an apology for his misconduct in a heated courtroom altercation where he was seen showing a middle finger to a plaintiff lawyer.
“I apologise for yesterday’s outburst. It was not appropriate,” attorney F Andino Reynal said in a Texas court on Thursday before the jury took their seats in the room.
A video of the altercation shared on social media showed Mr Reynal walking up to plaintiff lawyer Mark Banston and engaged visibly in a heated conversation with at least four other people in the same area.
Within seconds of confrontation, Mr Reynal flashed the middle finger to Mr Banston even as the argument continued for around a minute.
The clash began among the attorneys shortly after they sparred over presenting video evidence in the case to the court.
Mr Reynal slammed his counterpart for showing the jury of a dozen members “little clips from cherry-picked videos” from Jones’ InfoWars broadcasts about the Sandy Hook shooting incident and contested that he was not allowed to show longer videos.
He also told the court that Mr Bankston and his legal team had mutually agreed for him to show the videos for evidence.
The argument was derailed after an attorney for a victim’s family pointed out to the judge that Mr Reynal had been referring to them as “personal injury lawyers” in the open court. Upon hearing this, the Travis County district court judge Maya Guerra Gamble came down heavily on the defence attorney for the remark and asked him to review his “attorney code of conduct”.
Addressing the brawl on Thursday ahead of the proceedings, the judge said: "Next time anyone wants to have an argument, you need to take it outside. It’s not going to happen in here.”
The founder of InfoWars and far-right radio show host has already been found liable for defamation by the Texas court and is set to face an order on the damages to be paid to the parents of Sandy Hook Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis.
The parents of the victim who died in a school shooting are seeking $150m in damages for repeated lies by Jones about the deadliest incident in the US history.
