Alex Jones again on the hook for damages after bankruptcy choose sends Sandy Hook cases 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, the place the dad and mom of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook massacre await jury trials to see how much Jones must pay them.

“(We) are relieved however not stunned that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all the others,” mentioned Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing four dad and mom who won two defamation instances in opposition to Jones in Texas last year. “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 find out what damages Jones owed two mother and father he defamed when he known as the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “an enormous hoax,” and “utterly fake with actors.”

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

Among the disclosures that got here out of the bankruptcy courtroom hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation instances have progressed. Jones has spent no less than $10 million on authorized charges and has misplaced at the very least $20 million, his representatives mentioned in court docket. Jones did not file for bankruptcy protection himself, his representative said in court docket, as a result of he feared it might harm his brand within the conspiracy principle market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight households who misplaced loved ones in the bloodbath of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary College additionally gained a defamation case against Jones in 2021, a listening to was planned in Connecticut bankruptcy court on Tuesday that is anticipated to lead to an analogous consequence because the Texas circumstances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 filing put on maintain the two trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal court docket trumps state proceedings. Attorneys for households 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 bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a combined monthly revenue of $38,000 while Jones himself made at the least $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in courtroom.

In response, the families dropped Jones’ three business entities in chapter from their lawsuits. As a result of the families now not had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits towards Jones and Free Speech techniques could possibly be released back 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 chapter court docket in Texas agreed.

It stays to be seen whether Connecticut chapter 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