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

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

“(We) are relieved but not shocked that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all the others,” mentioned Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing 4 parents who won two defamation instances against Jones in Texas final 12 months. “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 bankruptcy court docket where three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 protection one week before a jury trial was to start to determine what damages Jones owed two dad and mom he defamed when he called the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “a large hoax,” and “fully fake with actors.”

The chapter choose’s ruling means the primary postponed defamation awards trial in Texas may begin as soon as June, Bankston recommended.

Among the disclosures that came out of the chapter court docket hearings is that Jones has suffered financially as the Sandy Hook defamation instances have progressed. Jones has spent a minimum of $10 million on authorized fees and has lost at the least $20 million, his representatives said in court docket. Jones did not file for bankruptcy protection himself, his representative said in court docket, as a result of he feared it will damage his brand in the conspiracy principle market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight households who lost family members in the bloodbath of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty additionally received a defamation case in opposition to Jones in 2021, a listening to was planned in Connecticut chapter courtroom on Tuesday that's anticipated to result in an identical end result because the Texas cases.

The reason has to do with a maneuver the Sandy Hook families took here and in Texas to outflank Jones in bankruptcy court docket.

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 households 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 mixed monthly earnings of $38,000 while Jones himself made at least $76 million in 2019, his representatives stated in court docket.

In response, the families dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. As a result of the families not had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits against Jones and Free Speech systems may very well be launched again to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Methods, who were not get together to the bankruptcies.

In rulings on Thursday and Friday, the federal chapter court 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 families in Connecticut had been scheduled for August.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342