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

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter choose has released extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and despatched his defamation circumstances again to state court docket in Texas, where the dad and mom 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 shocked that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all the others,” said Mark Bankston, an legal professional representing four dad and mom who received two defamation instances 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 families will lastly have the closure and recompense they deserve.”

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

The chapter choose’s ruling means the first postponed defamation awards trial in Texas may begin as quickly as June, Bankston suggested.

Among the disclosures that came out of the chapter court hearings is that Jones has suffered financially as the Sandy Hook defamation circumstances have progressed. Jones has spent at the very least $10 million on legal fees and has misplaced a minimum of $20 million, his representatives said in courtroom. Jones did not file for bankruptcy protection himself, his consultant stated in court, because he feared it will harm his brand in the conspiracy idea market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight families who misplaced family members in the bloodbath of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary College also gained a defamation case in opposition to Jones in 2021, a listening to was deliberate in Connecticut chapter courtroom on Tuesday that's anticipated to lead to the same consequence because the Texas cases.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 filing placed on maintain the two trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal court trumps state proceedings. Lawyers for families here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “unhealthy religion” 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 safety have a combined month-to-month income of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made at the very least $76 million in 2019, his representatives mentioned in court.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in chapter from their lawsuits. Because the households no longer had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits in opposition to Jones and Free Speech programs might be released back to the state courts for trial. The families 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 docket 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 households in Connecticut had been scheduled for August.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342