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

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter choose has released extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and sent his defamation cases again to state court in Texas, where the parents of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook bloodbath await jury trials to see how much Jones will have to pay them.

“(We) are relieved however not stunned that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all the others,” said Mark Bankston, an attorney representing four parents who won two defamation instances against Jones in Texas last yr. “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 courtroom the place three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 protection one week earlier than a jury trial was to start to find out what damages Jones owed two mother and father he defamed when he called the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “utterly fake with actors.”

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

Among the disclosures that came out of the bankruptcy court docket hearings is that Jones has suffered financially as the Sandy Hook defamation cases have progressed. Jones has spent a minimum of $10 million on legal fees and has lost at the least $20 million, his representatives mentioned in courtroom. Jones did not file for bankruptcy protection himself, his representative stated in court docket, as a result of he feared it could damage his brand within the conspiracy idea market.

In the meantime in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight households who misplaced loved ones within the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty also received a defamation case against Jones in 2021, a listening to was deliberate in Connecticut chapter court on Tuesday that is expected to lead to an analogous end result as 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 bankruptcy court docket.

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. Legal professionals for families right here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “unhealthy religion” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech programs didn't file for chapter. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a combined monthly revenue of $38,000 while Jones himself made a minimum of $76 million in 2019, his representatives stated in court docket.

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 in opposition to Jones and Free Speech methods might be launched again to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Techniques, who were not celebration 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 bankruptcy courtroom will rule equally. The trial to award defamation damages to the Sandy Hook families in Connecticut had been scheduled for August.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342