Alex Jones back on the hook for damages after bankruptcy choose sends Sandy Hook cases to Texas courtroom

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter choose has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and despatched his defamation circumstances back to state court in Texas, where the dad and mom of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook massacre await jury trials to see how much Jones should pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not surprised that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all the others,” said Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing 4 mother and father who won two defamation circumstances in opposition to Jones in Texas final year. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom within the coming weeks, and these families will finally have the closure and recompense they deserve.”

Bankston was referring to a month-long saga in Texas bankruptcy courtroom where three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 protection one week before a jury trial was to begin to determine what damages Jones owed two parents he defamed when he called the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a large hoax,” and “utterly faux with actors.”

The bankruptcy decide’s ruling means the first postponed defamation awards trial in Texas might begin as quickly as June, Bankston steered.

Among the disclosures that came out of the chapter courtroom hearings is that Jones has suffered financially as the Sandy Hook defamation circumstances have progressed. Jones has spent a minimum of $10 million on legal fees and has lost not less than $20 million, his representatives said in court docket. Jones did not file for bankruptcy safety himself, his representative said in courtroom, as a result of he feared it will damage his model in the conspiracy idea market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight families who lost loved ones within the bloodbath of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty additionally won a defamation case towards Jones in 2021, a hearing was planned in Connecticut bankruptcy courtroom on Tuesday that is anticipated to lead to the same outcome as the Texas instances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 submitting placed on maintain the 2 trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal court docket trumps state proceedings. Lawyers for households right here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “unhealthy religion” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech programs didn't file for bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a combined month-to-month income of $38,000 while Jones himself made at the very least $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in court.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. As a result of the families no longer had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits against Jones and Free Speech systems could be launched again to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Methods, 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 Connecticut chapter court 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