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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy decide has released extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 safety and despatched his defamation circumstances again to state court in Texas, the place the dad and mom of two boys slain in the Sandy Hook massacre 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 of the others,” said Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing four dad and mom who won two defamation cases towards Jones in Texas final yr. “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 where three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 safety one week earlier than a jury trial was to begin to find out what damages Jones owed two parents he defamed when he known as the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “an enormous hoax,” and “completely faux with actors.”

The bankruptcy judge’s ruling means the primary postponed defamation awards trial in Texas might start as soon as June, Bankston instructed.

Among the many disclosures that came out of the chapter court hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation circumstances have progressed. Jones has spent at the very least $10 million on authorized fees and has lost not less than $20 million, his representatives mentioned in courtroom. Jones didn't file for bankruptcy safety himself, his consultant said in court docket, because he feared it would harm his model within the conspiracy theory market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight households who lost loved ones within the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary College additionally won a defamation case in opposition to Jones in 2021, a hearing was deliberate in Connecticut chapter court docket on Tuesday that is anticipated to result in an identical outcome because the Texas cases.

The explanation has to do with a maneuver the Sandy Hook families took 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 courtroom trumps state proceedings. Legal professionals for households here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “dangerous faith” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech systems did not file for bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a combined monthly revenue of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made at the very least $76 million in 2019, his representatives mentioned in courtroom.

In response, the families dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. Because the households no longer had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits in opposition to Jones and Free Speech systems could be released back to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their goal was Jones himself and Free Speech Methods, who were not occasion to the bankruptcies.

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

It remains to be seen whether Connecticut bankruptcy courtroom 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