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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy judge has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and sent his defamation circumstances back to state court docket in Texas, where the parents of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook bloodbath await jury trials to see how a lot Jones must pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not surprised that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all the others,” mentioned Mark Bankston, an legal professional representing four parents who received two defamation instances towards Jones in Texas final year. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom in 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 court the place three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 safety one week earlier than a jury trial was to start to find out what damages Jones owed two mother and father he defamed when he known as the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a large hoax,” and “completely fake with actors.”

The chapter choose’s ruling means the primary postponed defamation awards trial in Texas could begin as quickly as June, Bankston instructed.

Among the many disclosures that got here out of the bankruptcy court docket hearings is that Jones has suffered financially as the Sandy Hook defamation instances have progressed. Jones has spent not less than $10 million on authorized fees and has lost at the very least $20 million, his representatives mentioned in court docket. Jones did not file for chapter protection himself, his representative mentioned in courtroom, because he feared it could injury his brand within the conspiracy idea market.

In the meantime in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight families who lost family members within the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School additionally received a defamation case against Jones in 2021, a listening to was deliberate in Connecticut bankruptcy court on Tuesday that is anticipated to end in an analogous final result 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.

Jones’ Chapter 11 filing put on hold the two trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal courtroom trumps state proceedings. Legal professionals for families right here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “unhealthy faith” 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 at least $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in court.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. As a result of the households now not had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits in opposition to Jones and Free Speech programs might be launched back to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Systems, who were not social gathering 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