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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy decide has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and sent his defamation circumstances back to state court in Texas, where the dad and mom 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’ newest stunt has failed like all of the others,” mentioned Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing four parents who won two defamation cases in opposition to Jones in Texas final yr. “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 chapter court docket the place three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 safety one week before a jury trial was to begin to find out what damages Jones owed two mother and father he defamed when he called the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “an enormous hoax,” and “fully faux with actors.”

The chapter judge’s ruling means the first postponed defamation awards trial in Texas might begin as soon as June, Bankston prompt.

Among the many 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 not less than $10 million on authorized fees and has misplaced a minimum of $20 million, his representatives said in court. Jones did not file for chapter protection himself, his consultant said in court docket, because he feared it would injury his model within the conspiracy theory 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 Faculty additionally won a defamation case towards Jones in 2021, a hearing was planned in Connecticut bankruptcy courtroom on Tuesday that is anticipated to result in a similar final result as the Texas instances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 filing put on maintain the two trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal court docket trumps state proceedings. Attorneys for families here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “dangerous faith” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech methods did not file for bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 protection have a combined monthly earnings of $38,000 while Jones himself made at the least $76 million in 2019, his representatives stated in court docket.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three business entities in chapter from their lawsuits. Because the families no longer had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits in opposition to Jones and Free Speech systems might be launched back to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their goal was Jones himself and Free Speech Systems, who were not get together to the bankruptcies.

In rulings on Thursday and Friday, the federal bankruptcy court docket 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