CT attorney defends records breach in Alex Jones Sandy Hook case

Pattis’ plea to be spared the punishment of getting rid of his Connecticut law license for 6 months is the newest development in the fallout of the $1.5 billion in damages Jones has been purchased to spend Sandy Hook households he defamed.

Not only is the long term of Jones as a main conspiracist at stake immediately after he filed for private personal bankruptcy, but the record of Pattis – a “well-highly regarded attorney in the legal community…with no disciplinary record, who has had a extensive and honorable career as a single of the best litigators in Connecticut.”

“Suspending legal professional Pattis would deprive the courts and public of an professional and zealous advocate,” Pattis’ authorized argument reads. “The instances at situation in this article, speak at the incredibly most, to an innocent mistake or misinterpretation of a confidentiality purchase that experienced a short while ago been amended.”

Pattis is referring to an incident that made national headlines during a livestreamed demo in August, when an attorney for mom and dad of a slain Sandy Hook boy stunned Jones on the witness stand by revealing that the attorney experienced inadvertently been despatched by Jones’ Texas lawyer Jones’ cellphone phone calls and the protected medical documents of eight Sandy Hook households and an FBI agent who sued Jones in Connecticut.

Andino Reynal, who was defending Jones in court docket that day, referred to as the surprising disclosure “the worst working day of my legal vocation.” Reynal, who received the Sandy Hook spouse and children health-related information from Jones’ Texas bankruptcy attorney, also argued for leniency in court docket papers submitted with point out Outstanding Court docket in Waterbury. Reynal has been suggested for a 3-thirty day period suspension of his capability to apply legislation in Connecticut.

The circumstance against Pattis and Reynal will be read in mid-January.

The challenge for Pattis will come at a time in his 30-12 months career wherever he is at a crossroads. In addition to jogging Jones’ submit-demo appeals in Connecticut, Pattis started jury choice on Monday representing Joseph Biggs, a member of the Very pleased Boys team, who’s billed with seditious conspiracy in the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

In November, Brian Staines, Connecticut’s main disciplinary counsel, argued in a court document that “Pattis, becoming informed of the protecting get, his possession of extremely confidential-lawyer eyes only health-related reports, unsuccessful to offer even the small total of care when instructing his affiliate to transfer all of this discovery to (Jones’ former lead bankruptcy lawyer Kyung) Lee, an unauthorized recipient.”

Staines argued there was no justification for a lawyer with Pattis’ encounter and expertise of large-profile circumstances to mishandle “highly particular information and facts, like the plaintiff’s health-related histories, psychiatric data, and info relating to the plaintiff’s non-public social media accounts.”

Pattis in his argument disagreed.

“To argue that just about every attorney that helps make an innocent and unintended miscalculation or inadvertently misinterprets a provision in a confidentiality get really should be subjected to sanctions would result in significant injustice.”

Pattis argued he would rather be a cautionary tale than have a strike on his document.

“If the court establishes that self-control is warranted [it should not], it should consider educational demands alternatively than reprimand or suspension,” Pattis’ argument reads. “It would not only provide as a corrective measure, but also, as legal professional Pattis is notable member of the bar and this is a scenario of superior media notice, it could also serve to educate and aid other attorneys.”

Arrive at Rob Ryser at [email protected] or 203-731-3342