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

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter decide has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and despatched his defamation instances again to state court docket in Texas, where the parents of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook massacre await jury trials to see how a lot Jones should pay them.

“(We) are relieved however not shocked that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all of the others,” stated Mark Bankston, an legal professional representing 4 mother and father who received two defamation instances towards Jones in Texas last 12 months. “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 chapter courtroom the place three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 safety one week earlier than a jury trial was to begin to determine what damages Jones owed two parents he defamed when he called the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “an enormous hoax,” and “completely faux with actors.”

The chapter judge’s ruling means the primary postponed defamation awards trial in Texas could begin as soon as June, Bankston advised.

Among the disclosures that got here out of the bankruptcy court docket hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation cases have progressed. Jones has spent at the very least $10 million on legal charges and has lost at the very least $20 million, his representatives mentioned in court docket. Jones did not file for chapter safety himself, his representative said in courtroom, because he feared it might harm his model within the conspiracy concept market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight families who misplaced family members within the bloodbath of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary College additionally won a defamation case towards Jones in 2021, a listening to was planned in Connecticut chapter courtroom on Tuesday that's expected to result in an analogous end result because the Texas circumstances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 submitting placed on maintain the two trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal courtroom trumps state proceedings. Lawyers 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 did not file for bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a mixed month-to-month revenue of $38,000 while Jones himself made a minimum of $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in courtroom.

In response, the families dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. As a result of the families no longer had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits against Jones and Free Speech techniques may very well be launched back to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their goal was Jones himself and Free Speech Techniques, who weren't party to the bankruptcies.

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

It remains to be seen whether or not Connecticut chapter courtroom 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