Alex Jones back on the hook for damages after bankruptcy decide sends Sandy Hook circumstances to Texas courtroom

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter choose has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and despatched his defamation instances again to state courtroom in Texas, the place the mother and father of two boys slain in the Sandy Hook massacre await jury trials to see how much Jones must pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not shocked that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all of the others,” stated Mark Bankston, an attorney representing 4 dad and mom who received two defamation cases against Jones in Texas last yr. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom in 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 court docket where three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 protection one week before a jury trial was to begin to determine what damages Jones owed two mother and father he defamed when he known as the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “an enormous hoax,” and “fully pretend with actors.”

The bankruptcy 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 came out of the bankruptcy court docket hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation circumstances have progressed. Jones has spent a minimum of $10 million on authorized charges and has misplaced not less than $20 million, his representatives stated in court docket. Jones didn't file for bankruptcy safety himself, his representative stated in courtroom, because he feared it would damage his model in the conspiracy concept 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 College additionally gained a defamation case in opposition to Jones in 2021, a listening to was planned in Connecticut bankruptcy court on Tuesday that is anticipated to end in a similar consequence as the Texas instances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 submitting placed on maintain the 2 trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal court trumps state proceedings. Attorneys for households right here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “bad religion” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech methods didn't file for chapter. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a mixed month-to-month earnings of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made at the least $76 million in 2019, his representatives stated in court docket.

In response, the families dropped Jones’ three business entities in chapter from their lawsuits. As a result of the households no longer had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits in opposition to Jones and Free Speech methods could be launched again to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Systems, who weren't get together to the bankruptcies.

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

It stays to be seen whether or not 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