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

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter choose has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 safety and despatched his defamation instances back to state courtroom in Texas, the place the parents of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook bloodbath await jury trials to see how much Jones should pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not stunned that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all of the others,” mentioned Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing four dad and mom who gained two defamation circumstances in opposition to Jones in Texas final year. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom in 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 court the place three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 safety one week earlier than a jury trial was to start to determine what damages Jones owed two dad and mom he defamed when he called the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a large hoax,” and “utterly faux with actors.”

The chapter judge’s ruling means the first postponed defamation awards trial in Texas could begin as quickly as June, Bankston suggested.

Among the many disclosures that came 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 the least $20 million, his representatives said in court. Jones did not file for chapter safety himself, his representative mentioned in court, because he feared it could injury his brand in the conspiracy idea market.

In the meantime in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight families who misplaced loved ones within the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty also received a defamation case in opposition to Jones in 2021, a hearing was planned in Connecticut chapter courtroom on Tuesday that is anticipated to result in an identical consequence as the Texas instances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 submitting put on hold the two trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal courtroom trumps state proceedings. Attorneys for families here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “dangerous religion” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech programs didn't file for chapter. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a combined monthly revenue of $38,000 while Jones himself made at the very least $76 million in 2019, his representatives mentioned in courtroom.

In response, the families dropped Jones’ three business entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. As a result of the households no longer had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits against Jones and Free Speech methods could be released back to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their goal was Jones himself and Free Speech Systems, who were not occasion to the bankruptcies.

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

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

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342