Alex Jones again on the hook for damages after chapter choose sends Sandy Hook instances to Texas courtroom

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

“(We) are relieved but not shocked that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all the others,” said Mark Bankston, an attorney representing four mother and father who won two defamation cases towards Jones in Texas last 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 the place three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 protection one week earlier than a jury trial was to start 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,” “an enormous hoax,” and “completely faux with actors.”

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

Among the many disclosures that got here out of the chapter courtroom hearings is that Jones has suffered financially as the Sandy Hook defamation instances have progressed. Jones has spent a minimum of $10 million on legal charges and has misplaced a minimum of $20 million, his representatives said in court. Jones did not file for chapter protection himself, his consultant stated in courtroom, as a result of he feared it could harm his model within the conspiracy principle market.

In the meantime in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight households who lost family members within the bloodbath of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary College also gained a defamation case against Jones in 2021, a hearing was deliberate in Connecticut bankruptcy courtroom on Tuesday that is expected to result in an identical consequence because 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 court docket.

Jones’ Chapter 11 submitting put on hold the two trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal court trumps state proceedings. Lawyers for families right here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “bad faith” 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 protection have a combined monthly income of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made at the least $76 million in 2019, his representatives mentioned in courtroom.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. As a result of the households no longer had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits towards Jones and Free Speech systems could possibly be released back to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Programs, who weren't social gathering to the bankruptcies.

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

It stays to be seen whether Connecticut chapter courtroom 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