(In Aug 6 story, corrects charge against Carmen Maria Montiel to interference with a flight crew attendant, paragraph 12)
By Jacqueline Thomsen
Aug 6 (Reuters) - The lawyer defending conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in a Texas trial drew his own national headlines this week for accidentally handing over highly-sensitive data to his adversaries, opening him up to potential legal consequences.
Houston lawyer Federico Andino Reynal acknowledged that Jones' legal team had provided lawyers for parents of a child killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting with a digital copy of the Infowars founder’s phone contents, which included text messages and medical records.
The disclosure was made public by a lawyer for the parents in a dramatic exchange with Jones as the trial neared its close. {nL1N2ZG1XS]
The revelation may have exposed Reynal to sanctions in a different case, as well as the potential for malpractice claims by Jones, according to court documents and lawyers following the trial.
Jones could pursue a malpractice claim against his attorneys, but would have to prove that he would have had a better result from the Texas trial if the phone information hadn't been handed over, said Randy Johnston, a legal malpractice lawyer in Dallas.
"Any complaint he would make is, essentially, 'but for my lawyers, I would have been a successful liar,'" Johnston said.
Reynal told Reuters on Friday that his focus "was always on the jury and on putting the best case forward for Alex." He said sanctions sought against him may be for a "tactical advantage" by his opponents.
Jones couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
An Austin jury on Friday awarded the parents $45.2 million in punitive damages against Jones for falsely calling the 2012 massacre a hoax, on top of a $4.1 million compensatory damages verdict the day before.
A judge in Austin had rejected a bid by Reynal on Thursday to shield the phone records and denied his request for a mistrial over the disclosure.
A Connecticut state judge overseeing another Sandy Hook defamation case against Jones on Thursday ordered Reynal and another Jones lawyer, Norm Pattis, to appear later this month for hearings to consider sanctions or other discipline over their "purported" unauthorized release of Sandy Hook plaintiffs’ medical records.
Pattis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Reynal's small Houston law firm primarily handles criminal defense cases in state and federal courts.
He successfully defended Carmen Maria Montiel, a former Miss Venezuela, from a 2013 charge of interference with a flight crew attendant. A jury acquitted her in 2015.