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

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter choose has released extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 safety and sent his defamation cases back to state courtroom in Texas, the place the parents of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook massacre await jury trials to see how a lot Jones will have to pay them.

“(We) are relieved however not shocked that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all of the others,” said Mark Bankston, an attorney representing 4 mother and father who received two defamation instances in opposition to Jones in Texas last 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 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,” “a giant hoax,” and “utterly fake with actors.”

The chapter decide’s ruling means the first postponed defamation awards trial in Texas could start as quickly as June, Bankston prompt.

Among the disclosures that came out of the bankruptcy court hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation cases have progressed. Jones has spent at the least $10 million on authorized fees and has misplaced not less than $20 million, his representatives said in court. Jones did not file for bankruptcy safety himself, his representative stated in court docket, because he feared it could injury his brand in the conspiracy idea market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight families who lost family members within the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty additionally gained a defamation case towards Jones in 2021, a hearing was deliberate in Connecticut bankruptcy court docket on Tuesday that's anticipated to end in an analogous outcome because the Texas cases.

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

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. Legal professionals for families right 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 bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a combined month-to-month revenue of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made no less than $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in courtroom.

In response, the families dropped Jones’ three business entities in chapter from their lawsuits. Because 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 households argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Programs, who were not occasion to the bankruptcies.

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

It stays to be seen whether or not Connecticut bankruptcy courtroom will rule equally. The trial to award defamation damages to the Sandy Hook families in Connecticut had been scheduled for August.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342