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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy decide has released extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 safety and despatched his defamation circumstances back to state court in Texas, where the mother and father of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook massacre await jury trials to see how much Jones must pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not surprised that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all of the others,” stated Mark Bankston, an legal professional representing 4 dad and mom who gained two defamation cases in opposition to Jones in Texas last yr. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom within 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 chapter courtroom where three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 protection one week earlier than a jury trial was to begin to determine what damages Jones owed two mother and father he defamed when he referred to as the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a large hoax,” and “fully pretend with actors.”

The chapter decide’s ruling means the primary postponed defamation awards trial in Texas could begin as quickly as June, Bankston recommended.

Among the disclosures that got here out of the bankruptcy court docket hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation cases have progressed. Jones has spent not less than $10 million on legal charges and has lost at the least $20 million, his representatives said in courtroom. Jones didn't file for bankruptcy safety himself, his consultant mentioned in court docket, because he feared it would damage his model in the conspiracy idea market.

In the meantime in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight families who lost family members within the bloodbath of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty also received a defamation case against Jones in 2021, a listening to was planned in Connecticut chapter court docket on Tuesday that's anticipated to end in a similar consequence because the Texas cases.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 submitting placed on maintain the two trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal court docket trumps state proceedings. Lawyers 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 techniques did not file for bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a mixed monthly earnings of $38,000 while Jones himself made not less than $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in courtroom.

In response, the families dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in chapter from their lawsuits. As a result of the households no longer had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits against Jones and Free Speech programs might be released back to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Systems, who were not celebration to the bankruptcies.

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

It remains to be seen whether Connecticut chapter 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