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

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter choose has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and sent his defamation instances back to state courtroom 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 must pay them.

“(We) are relieved however not shocked that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all the others,” said Mark Bankston, an attorney representing four mother and father who gained two defamation circumstances in opposition to Jones in Texas last 12 months. “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 where three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 safety one week earlier than a jury trial was to start to find out what damages Jones owed two parents he defamed when he called 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 primary postponed defamation awards trial in Texas may start as quickly as June, Bankston steered.

Among the disclosures that came out of the bankruptcy courtroom hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation cases have progressed. Jones has spent at least $10 million on authorized charges and has misplaced no less than $20 million, his representatives said in court. Jones did not file for bankruptcy safety himself, his consultant stated in courtroom, because he feared it would harm his model in the conspiracy principle market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight families who misplaced loved ones within the bloodbath of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary College also gained a defamation case against Jones in 2021, a hearing was planned in Connecticut chapter courtroom on Tuesday that is expected to end in an analogous final result as the Texas instances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 filing put on maintain the 2 trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal courtroom trumps state proceedings. Attorneys for families right here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “dangerous faith” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech systems did not file for chapter. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a combined monthly earnings of $38,000 while Jones himself made at the very least $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in court docket.

In response, the families dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. As a result of the families no longer had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits towards Jones and Free Speech systems may very well be launched back to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their goal was Jones himself and Free Speech Systems, who were not celebration to the bankruptcies.

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

It remains to be seen whether Connecticut bankruptcy courtroom will rule similarly. The trial to award defamation damages to the Sandy Hook households in Connecticut had been scheduled for August.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342