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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy choose has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 safety and sent his defamation cases back to state court docket in Texas, where the parents of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook massacre await jury trials to see how a lot Jones will have to pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not stunned that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all of the others,” mentioned Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing four dad and mom who won two defamation cases in opposition to Jones in Texas last year. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom within the coming weeks, and these families will finally have the closure and recompense they deserve.”

Bankston was referring to a month-long saga in Texas bankruptcy court the place three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 safety one week before a jury trial was to begin to determine what damages Jones owed two parents he defamed when he referred to as the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “fully faux with actors.”

The bankruptcy choose’s ruling means the primary postponed defamation awards trial in Texas could start as quickly as June, Bankston instructed.

Among the many disclosures that got here 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 legal fees and has lost a minimum of $20 million, his representatives stated in court. Jones did not file for chapter safety himself, his consultant stated in courtroom, because he feared it will damage his model within the conspiracy principle market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight families who misplaced family members within the bloodbath of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School also received a defamation case in opposition to Jones in 2021, a listening to was deliberate in Connecticut chapter court on Tuesday that is anticipated to lead to the same end result because the Texas circumstances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 submitting placed on maintain the two trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal courtroom trumps state proceedings. Lawyers for households right here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “unhealthy religion” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech techniques didn't file for chapter. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a mixed month-to-month income of $38,000 while Jones himself made at the very least $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in courtroom.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three business entities in chapter from their lawsuits. Because the families not had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits towards Jones and Free Speech systems could possibly be released again to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their goal was Jones himself and Free Speech Techniques, who weren't celebration to the bankruptcies.

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

It remains 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