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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy judge has released extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and despatched his defamation circumstances again to state courtroom in Texas, the place the mother and father of two boys slain in the Sandy Hook massacre await jury trials to see how a lot Jones must pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not shocked that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all the others,” stated Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing 4 dad and mom who gained two defamation circumstances 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 finally have the closure and recompense they deserve.”

Bankston was referring to a month-long saga in Texas bankruptcy courtroom where three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 safety one week earlier than a jury trial was to start to find out what damages Jones owed two parents he defamed when he referred to as the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “utterly fake with actors.”

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

Among the many disclosures that got here out of the bankruptcy 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 misplaced not less than $20 million, his representatives mentioned in court. Jones didn't file for bankruptcy protection himself, his representative said in court docket, because he feared it will injury his model in the conspiracy idea market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight families who lost family members within the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty 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 end in an analogous consequence because the Texas circumstances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 filing placed on maintain the two trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal courtroom trumps state proceedings. Lawyers for families here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “dangerous religion” 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 mixed month-to-month earnings of $38,000 while Jones himself made at the least $76 million in 2019, his representatives mentioned in courtroom.

In response, the families dropped Jones’ three business entities in chapter from their lawsuits. Because the households no longer had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits against Jones and Free Speech systems could possibly be launched back to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Programs, who weren't party to the bankruptcies.

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

It remains to be seen whether Connecticut bankruptcy court 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