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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy decide has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and despatched his defamation instances again to state courtroom in Texas, where the parents of two boys slain in the Sandy Hook bloodbath await jury trials to see how much Jones must pay them.

“(We) are relieved however not shocked that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all the others,” said Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing 4 mother and father who gained two defamation circumstances against Jones in Texas last 12 months. “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 bankruptcy courtroom the place three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 safety one week before a jury trial was to begin to determine what damages Jones owed two dad and mom he defamed when he known as the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “fully fake with actors.”

The chapter decide’s ruling means the primary postponed defamation awards trial in Texas may start as quickly as June, Bankston steered.

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

Meanwhile in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight families who lost family members within the bloodbath of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School additionally received a defamation case in opposition to Jones in 2021, a listening to was planned in Connecticut bankruptcy court on Tuesday that is anticipated to lead to a similar final result because the Texas cases.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 submitting placed on maintain the 2 trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal court docket trumps state proceedings. Legal professionals for families right here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “unhealthy faith” 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 protection have a mixed monthly revenue of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made a minimum of $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in court.

In response, the families dropped Jones’ three business entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. As a result of the households now not had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits against Jones and Free Speech methods might be launched back to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Programs, who were not social gathering to the bankruptcies.

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

It remains to be seen whether or not Connecticut chapter court docket will rule equally. The trial to award defamation damages to the Sandy Hook families in Connecticut had been scheduled for August.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342