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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy choose has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and despatched his defamation instances again to state courtroom in Texas, the place the mother and father of two boys slain in the Sandy Hook massacre await jury trials to see how much Jones should pay them.

“(We) are relieved however not stunned that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all the others,” said Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing 4 mother and father who won two defamation cases in opposition to Jones in Texas last 12 months. “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 docket where three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 protection one week before a jury trial was to start to find out what damages Jones owed two parents he defamed when he called the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “a large hoax,” and “utterly fake with actors.”

The bankruptcy judge’s ruling means the primary postponed defamation awards trial in Texas might start as quickly as June, Bankston advised.

Among the disclosures that got here out of the chapter court hearings is that Jones has suffered financially as the Sandy Hook defamation cases have progressed. Jones has spent a minimum of $10 million on legal fees and has lost a minimum of $20 million, his representatives stated in court. Jones didn't file for chapter safety himself, his representative stated in court docket, as a result of he feared it could damage his brand within the conspiracy principle market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight households who misplaced family members in the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty additionally gained a defamation case in opposition to Jones in 2021, a listening to was planned in Connecticut bankruptcy courtroom on Tuesday that is expected to end in an identical consequence because the Texas cases.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 filing put on hold the two trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal court docket 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 programs did not file for chapter. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a mixed monthly earnings of $38,000 while Jones himself made no less than $76 million in 2019, his representatives mentioned in court docket.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three business entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. Because the households no longer had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits towards Jones and Free Speech systems could be released back to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their goal was Jones himself and Free Speech Systems, who weren't party to the bankruptcies.

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

It stays to be seen whether Connecticut chapter court docket 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