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

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

“(We) are relieved however not stunned that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all of the others,” mentioned Mark Bankston, an attorney representing 4 mother and father 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 in 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 court the place three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 protection one week before a jury trial was to start to determine what damages Jones owed two parents he defamed when he known as the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “completely pretend with actors.”

The chapter judge’s ruling means the primary postponed defamation awards trial in Texas could start as soon as June, Bankston steered.

Among the many disclosures that got here out of the bankruptcy court docket 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 fees and has misplaced at least $20 million, his representatives stated in court. Jones didn't file for chapter protection himself, his consultant said in courtroom, as a result of he feared it might injury his model within the conspiracy theory market.

In the meantime in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight families who lost loved ones in the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty additionally gained a defamation case towards Jones in 2021, a listening to was deliberate in Connecticut chapter court on Tuesday that is expected to end in the same outcome because the Texas circumstances.

The reason has to do with a maneuver the Sandy Hook families took here and in Texas to outflank Jones in chapter court.

Jones’ Chapter 11 submitting put on maintain the two trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal court trumps state proceedings. Legal professionals for households here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “dangerous 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 income of $38,000 while Jones himself made not less than $76 million in 2019, his representatives mentioned in courtroom.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. Because the households no longer had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits in opposition to Jones and Free Speech methods might be released 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 docket in Texas agreed.

It stays to be seen whether or not Connecticut bankruptcy court 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