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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy choose has released extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and despatched his defamation instances back to state courtroom in Texas, where the parents of two boys slain in the Sandy Hook bloodbath await jury trials to see how much Jones should pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not shocked that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all of the others,” stated Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing 4 dad and mom who gained two defamation circumstances against Jones in Texas final year. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom within 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 chapter court docket where three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 safety one week before a jury trial was to begin to determine what damages Jones owed two dad and mom he defamed when he known as the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “an enormous hoax,” and “fully fake with actors.”

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

Among the disclosures that got here out of the chapter 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 authorized charges and has misplaced at least $20 million, his representatives said in court docket. Jones did not file for bankruptcy protection himself, his representative stated in court docket, because he feared it might injury his brand within the conspiracy principle market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight households who lost loved ones within the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary College additionally gained a defamation case towards Jones in 2021, a listening to was planned in Connecticut bankruptcy court docket on Tuesday that is anticipated to lead to an identical final result as the Texas cases.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 submitting put on maintain the two trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal courtroom 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 methods did not file for bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 protection have a combined month-to-month revenue of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made not less than $76 million in 2019, his representatives stated in court docket.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. Because the households not had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits against Jones and Free Speech systems may very well be launched again to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their goal was Jones himself and Free Speech Programs, who weren't celebration to the bankruptcies.

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

It stays to be seen whether Connecticut chapter court docket 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