Sandy Hook families win legal victory against Alex Jones in defamation case

(CNN Business) Sandy Hook families suing InfoWars founder Alex Jones have won a case against him after a judge ruled against Jones who has failed to comply with the discovery process.

Jones and entities owned by him were found liable by default Monday in a defamation case against them.

Connecticut Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis cited the defendants' "willful noncompliance" with the discovery process as her core reasoning behind the ruling. She specifically noted that they had not turned over financial and analytics data requested multiple times by the Sandy Hook family plaintiffs.

"All the defendants have failed to fully and fairly comply with their discovery obligations," Bellis said at the virtual hearing.

Judge Bellis said that she had held off scheduling Monday's sanctions hearing "in hopes these problems would be corrected" by the Jones defendants.

"While the families are grateful for the Court's ruling, they remain focused on uncovering the truth. As the Court noted, Alex Jones and his companies have deliberately concealed evidence of the relationship between what they publish and how they make money," said Chris Mattei of Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder, which represents the plaintiffs. "Mr. Jones was given every opportunity to comply but, when he chose instead to withhold evidence for more than two years, the Court was left with no choice but to rule as it did today. While today's ruling is a legal victory, the battle to shed light on how deeply Mr. Jones has harmed these families continues."

Spokespeople for Alex Jones did not immediately respond to CNN Business' request for comment.

Jones was being sued by families of Sandy Hook victims in both Texas and Connecticut courts over his past claims that the 2012 mass shooting was staged. He has since acknowledged that the shooting was real.

The case will now proceed to a hearing and damages as to the defendants, Bellis said. A status conference is scheduled for Wednesday.