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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy judge has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and sent his defamation cases again to state court docket in Texas, the place the parents of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook bloodbath await jury trials to see how much Jones must pay them.

“(We) are relieved however not surprised that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all of the others,” stated Mark Bankston, an attorney representing four mother and father who won two defamation instances towards Jones in Texas last yr. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom in the coming weeks, and these households will lastly have the closure and recompense they deserve.”

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

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

Among the disclosures that got here out of the bankruptcy court hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation circumstances have progressed. Jones has spent at least $10 million on authorized charges and has lost a minimum of $20 million, his representatives said in court docket. Jones did not file for chapter protection himself, his consultant mentioned in court docket, as a result of he feared it would harm his model within the conspiracy idea market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight families who lost loved ones in the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School also won a defamation case against Jones in 2021, a listening to was deliberate in Connecticut chapter court docket on Tuesday that is expected to end in a similar outcome because the Texas circumstances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 filing put on hold the two trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal court docket trumps state proceedings. Lawyers for households right here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “dangerous 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 protection have a mixed month-to-month income of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made not less than $76 million in 2019, his representatives stated in court docket.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. Because the families not had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits against Jones and Free Speech methods could possibly be released back to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Methods, who were not get together to the bankruptcies.

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

It remains to be seen whether or not Connecticut bankruptcy 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