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

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter choose has released extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 safety and sent his defamation cases again to state court docket in Texas, where the dad and mom of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook massacre await jury trials to see how much Jones will have to pay them.

“(We) are relieved however not stunned that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all of the others,” said Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing 4 mother and father who won two defamation cases against Jones in Texas last yr. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom in the coming weeks, and these families will lastly have the closure and recompense they deserve.”

Bankston was referring to a month-long saga in Texas chapter courtroom the place three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 protection one week before a jury trial was to start to find out what damages Jones owed two parents he defamed when he called the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “a large hoax,” and “fully pretend with actors.”

The bankruptcy choose’s ruling means the first postponed defamation awards trial in Texas may start as quickly as June, Bankston suggested.

Among the disclosures that got here out of the bankruptcy courtroom hearings is that Jones has suffered financially as the Sandy Hook defamation cases have progressed. Jones has spent at least $10 million on legal fees and has misplaced at least $20 million, his representatives stated in courtroom. Jones didn't file for bankruptcy safety himself, his representative said in courtroom, because he feared it will harm his model within the conspiracy idea market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight families who lost loved ones within the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary College additionally received a defamation case towards Jones in 2021, a listening to was deliberate in Connecticut chapter courtroom on Tuesday that's expected to result in an identical end result because the Texas circumstances.

The rationale has to do with a maneuver the Sandy Hook families took right here and in Texas to outflank Jones in chapter court docket.

Jones’ Chapter 11 filing placed on hold the 2 trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal court docket trumps state proceedings. Lawyers for families right here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “bad religion” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech techniques didn't file for bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 protection have a mixed monthly revenue of $38,000 while Jones himself made at the least $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in court docket.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three business entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. Because the families now not had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits against Jones and Free Speech techniques might be released again to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their goal was Jones himself and Free Speech Systems, who were not celebration to the bankruptcies.

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

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

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342