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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy judge has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 safety and sent his defamation instances back to state court in Texas, where the parents of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook bloodbath await jury trials to see how a lot Jones will have to pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not shocked that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all of the others,” mentioned Mark Bankston, an legal professional representing four mother and father who won two defamation cases towards Jones in Texas last yr. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom within the coming weeks, and these households will finally have the closure and recompense they deserve.”

Bankston was referring to a month-long saga in Texas chapter courtroom where three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 protection one week earlier than a jury trial was to begin to find out what damages Jones owed two mother and father he defamed when he known as the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “an enormous hoax,” and “fully fake with actors.”

The bankruptcy decide’s ruling means the primary postponed defamation awards trial in Texas could start as quickly as June, Bankston urged.

Among the many disclosures that got here out of the bankruptcy court docket hearings is that Jones has suffered financially as the Sandy Hook defamation instances have progressed. Jones has spent no less than $10 million on legal charges and has misplaced not less than $20 million, his representatives stated in court. Jones did not file for bankruptcy safety himself, his consultant mentioned in courtroom, as a result of he feared it would harm his brand within the conspiracy principle market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight households who misplaced family members within the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School additionally gained a defamation case against Jones in 2021, a listening to was planned in Connecticut chapter court on Tuesday that's anticipated to result in an analogous consequence because the Texas cases.

The explanation has to do with a maneuver the Sandy Hook households took here and in Texas to outflank Jones in bankruptcy court docket.

Jones’ Chapter 11 submitting put on hold the 2 trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal courtroom trumps state proceedings. Legal professionals for families here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “dangerous faith” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech methods did not file for chapter. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a combined monthly income of $38,000 while Jones himself made at the least $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in courtroom.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three business entities in chapter from their lawsuits. Because the households not had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits towards Jones and Free Speech programs may very well be launched back to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their goal was Jones himself and Free Speech Programs, who were not occasion to the bankruptcies.

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

It remains to be seen whether Connecticut chapter court docket will rule similarly. The trial to award defamation damages to the Sandy Hook families in Connecticut had been scheduled for August.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342