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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy judge has released extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and sent his defamation instances again to state court docket in Texas, the place the dad and mom of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook bloodbath await jury trials to see how a lot Jones should pay them.

“(We) are relieved however not surprised that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all the others,” stated Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing four mother and father who received two defamation instances against Jones in Texas last 12 months. “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 bankruptcy courtroom 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 historical past “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “an enormous hoax,” and “fully fake with actors.”

The chapter judge’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 court hearings is that Jones has suffered financially as the Sandy Hook defamation circumstances have progressed. Jones has spent not less than $10 million on legal charges and has lost at least $20 million, his representatives stated in court docket. Jones did not file for bankruptcy protection himself, his representative mentioned in courtroom, as a result of he feared it would damage his brand within the conspiracy concept market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight households who lost family members within the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty also won a defamation case towards Jones in 2021, a hearing was deliberate in Connecticut bankruptcy court on Tuesday that is anticipated to result in the same final result as the Texas instances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 submitting placed on hold the two trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal court trumps state proceedings. Attorneys for households here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “unhealthy religion” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech systems didn't file for chapter. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a mixed monthly revenue of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made not less than $76 million in 2019, his representatives mentioned in court docket.

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

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

It remains to be seen whether or not Connecticut chapter court docket will rule equally. The trial to award defamation damages to the Sandy Hook households in Connecticut had been scheduled for August.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342