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

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter judge has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and despatched his defamation instances again to state court docket in Texas, where the parents of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook bloodbath await jury trials to see how a lot Jones must pay them.

“(We) are relieved however not shocked that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all the others,” mentioned Mark Bankston, an attorney representing four dad and mom who won two defamation circumstances in opposition to Jones in Texas final year. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom within 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 court docket the place three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 safety one week earlier than a jury trial was to start to determine what damages Jones owed two mother and father he defamed when he known as the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “fully fake with actors.”

The bankruptcy judge’s ruling means the first postponed defamation awards trial in Texas may begin as quickly as June, Bankston recommended.

Among the disclosures that came out of the bankruptcy courtroom hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation cases have progressed. Jones has spent at the least $10 million on legal fees and has lost at least $20 million, his representatives mentioned in court. Jones did not file for bankruptcy safety himself, his consultant mentioned in courtroom, because he feared it might harm his model within the conspiracy concept market.

In the meantime in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight households who misplaced loved ones within the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty additionally received a defamation case against Jones in 2021, a hearing was planned in Connecticut chapter courtroom on Tuesday that is anticipated to result in an identical final result as the Texas instances.

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 filing put on hold the 2 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 faith” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech programs didn't file for bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 protection have a mixed monthly income of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made a minimum of $76 million in 2019, his representatives mentioned in court.

In response, the families dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. As a result of the households now not had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits towards Jones and Free Speech programs could possibly be released back to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their goal was Jones himself and Free Speech Methods, who weren't occasion to the bankruptcies.

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

It remains to be seen whether or not Connecticut chapter court 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