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

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter judge has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 safety and sent his defamation circumstances again to state court docket in Texas, the place the parents of two boys slain in the Sandy Hook massacre await jury trials to see how a lot Jones will have to pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not shocked that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all the others,” stated Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing four mother and father who gained two defamation instances towards Jones in Texas last yr. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom within the coming weeks, and these families will lastly 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 safety one week before a jury trial was to start to determine what damages Jones owed two mother and father he defamed when he referred to as the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “a large hoax,” and “fully fake with actors.”

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

Among the disclosures that came out of the bankruptcy court hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation instances have progressed. Jones has spent at least $10 million on legal charges and has misplaced at the least $20 million, his representatives said in court. Jones didn't file for chapter safety himself, his representative mentioned in court, as a result of he feared it might harm his brand within the conspiracy principle market.

In the meantime in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight households who lost family members in the bloodbath of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary College additionally won a defamation case against Jones in 2021, a listening to was planned in Connecticut bankruptcy courtroom on Tuesday that's expected to end in an identical end result because the Texas cases.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 submitting put on maintain the 2 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 “unhealthy religion” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech techniques did not file for chapter. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 protection have a combined month-to-month income of $38,000 while Jones himself made at the very least $76 million in 2019, his representatives mentioned in court docket.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in chapter from their lawsuits. Because the households not had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits against Jones and Free Speech techniques might be released back to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Programs, who were not social gathering to the bankruptcies.

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

It remains to be seen whether 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