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

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

“(We) are relieved however not stunned that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all of the others,” mentioned Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing four parents who won two defamation cases towards Jones in Texas last year. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom in 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 chapter courtroom the place 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 dad and mom he defamed when he known as the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “an enormous hoax,” and “fully faux with actors.”

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

Among the many disclosures that got here out of the chapter court hearings is that Jones has suffered financially as the Sandy Hook defamation circumstances have progressed. Jones has spent a minimum of $10 million on legal charges and has misplaced not less than $20 million, his representatives mentioned in court. Jones did not file for chapter safety himself, his consultant said in court, as a result of he feared it might harm his brand in the conspiracy principle market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight households who lost loved ones in the bloodbath of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary College additionally received a defamation case in opposition to Jones in 2021, a hearing was planned in Connecticut bankruptcy court docket on Tuesday that is anticipated to end in the same outcome as the Texas instances.

The rationale 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 placed on maintain the two trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal court trumps state proceedings. Attorneys for households here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “unhealthy religion” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech programs 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 said in court docket.

In response, the families dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. Because the families now not had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits against Jones and Free Speech systems could be launched again to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Methods, who were not celebration to the bankruptcies.

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

It remains to be seen whether or not Connecticut bankruptcy courtroom 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