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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy judge has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and despatched his defamation instances again to state court in Texas, where the dad and mom of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook bloodbath await jury trials to see how a lot Jones must pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not stunned that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all the others,” stated Mark Bankston, an attorney representing four mother and father who received two defamation circumstances towards 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 where three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 protection one week earlier than a jury trial was to begin to find out what damages Jones owed two dad and mom he defamed when he called the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “utterly faux with actors.”

The bankruptcy decide’s ruling means the primary postponed defamation awards trial in Texas may begin as soon as June, Bankston suggested.

Among the many disclosures that got here out of the chapter courtroom hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation cases have progressed. Jones has spent at the very least $10 million on legal charges and has lost a minimum of $20 million, his representatives mentioned in courtroom. Jones didn't file for bankruptcy safety himself, his representative stated in court docket, as a result of he feared it will harm his model in the conspiracy concept market.

In the meantime 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 School additionally won a defamation case in opposition to Jones in 2021, a listening to was deliberate in Connecticut bankruptcy court docket on Tuesday that's anticipated to end in an analogous consequence as 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 courtroom.

Jones’ Chapter 11 filing put on hold the 2 trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal court docket trumps state proceedings. Legal professionals for households here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “unhealthy faith” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech programs did not file for chapter. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 protection have a mixed month-to-month revenue of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made not less than $76 million in 2019, his representatives stated in courtroom.

In response, the families dropped Jones’ three business entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. Because the households not had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits in opposition to Jones and Free Speech systems may very well be released again to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Techniques, who weren't social gathering to the bankruptcies.

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

It remains to be seen whether Connecticut chapter court docket 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