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

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter choose has released extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and despatched his defamation cases again to state court in Texas, the place the mother and father of two boys slain in the Sandy Hook massacre await jury trials to see how a lot Jones should pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not shocked that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all of the others,” said Mark Bankston, an legal professional representing four mother and father who received two defamation cases against Jones in Texas last year. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom within 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 where three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 safety one week before a jury trial was to start to find out what damages Jones owed two dad and mom he defamed when he called the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “fully pretend with actors.”

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

Among the many disclosures that got here out of the bankruptcy court hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation instances have progressed. Jones has spent at the very least $10 million on authorized charges and has misplaced at the least $20 million, his representatives mentioned in court docket. Jones did not file for bankruptcy safety himself, his representative mentioned in court docket, as a result of he feared it would harm his brand in the conspiracy theory market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight households who misplaced family members within the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty also 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 the same final result because the Texas instances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 submitting put on maintain the 2 trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal court trumps state proceedings. Legal professionals for households here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “dangerous religion” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech techniques did not file for bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 protection have a mixed month-to-month earnings of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made at the least $76 million in 2019, his representatives mentioned in courtroom.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. As a result of the families not had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits towards 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 Techniques, 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 bankruptcy court docket 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