Alex Jones back on the hook for damages after chapter choose sends Sandy Hook cases to Texas court docket

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter judge has released extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 safety and despatched his defamation cases again to state courtroom in Texas, where the parents of two boys slain in the Sandy Hook bloodbath await jury trials to see how a lot Jones must pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not surprised that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all the others,” mentioned Mark Bankston, an legal professional representing 4 dad and mom who gained two defamation circumstances in opposition to Jones in Texas last year. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom in the coming weeks, and these households will lastly have the closure and recompense they deserve.”

Bankston was referring to a month-long saga in Texas chapter court the place three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 safety one week before a jury trial was to start to determine what damages Jones owed two mother and father he defamed when he known as the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “fully pretend with actors.”

The chapter decide’s ruling means the first postponed defamation awards trial in Texas might start as quickly as June, Bankston advised.

Among the many disclosures that got here out of the bankruptcy court docket hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation cases have progressed. Jones has spent at least $10 million on authorized fees and has lost a minimum of $20 million, his representatives mentioned in court. Jones did not file for chapter protection himself, his consultant stated in court docket, as a result of he feared it might damage his brand in the conspiracy idea market.

In the meantime in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight families who lost family members in the bloodbath of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty also gained a defamation case in opposition to Jones in 2021, a listening to was planned in Connecticut chapter courtroom on Tuesday that is expected to result in the same outcome as the Texas cases.

The reason has to do with a maneuver the Sandy Hook families took here and in Texas to outflank Jones in bankruptcy courtroom.

Jones’ Chapter 11 filing put on maintain the 2 trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal court trumps state proceedings. Lawyers for families right here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “unhealthy religion” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech systems did not file for chapter. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a mixed monthly revenue of $38,000 while Jones himself made at the least $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in courtroom.

In response, the families dropped Jones’ three business entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. Because the families no longer had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits towards Jones and Free Speech systems could be launched back to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their goal was Jones himself and Free Speech Methods, who weren't party to the bankruptcies.

In rulings on Thursday and Friday, the federal chapter court docket in Texas agreed.

It stays to be seen whether Connecticut chapter courtroom will rule similarly. The trial to award defamation damages to the Sandy Hook households in Connecticut had been scheduled for August.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342