Alex Jones back on the hook for damages after bankruptcy judge sends Sandy Hook cases to Texas courtroom

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter decide has launched 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 bloodbath await jury trials to see how much Jones must pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not stunned that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all of the others,” stated Mark Bankston, an attorney representing 4 dad and mom who received two defamation circumstances towards Jones in Texas final year. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom within the coming weeks, and these households will finally have the closure and recompense they deserve.”

Bankston was referring to a month-long saga in Texas bankruptcy courtroom the place three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 protection one week earlier than a jury trial was to start to determine what damages Jones owed two dad and mom he defamed when he known as the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “a large hoax,” and “fully pretend with actors.”

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

Among the many disclosures that got here out of the bankruptcy court hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation cases have progressed. Jones has spent at the very least $10 million on legal fees and has misplaced at the least $20 million, his representatives stated in court docket. Jones did not file for bankruptcy protection himself, his consultant mentioned in court docket, as a result of he feared it might injury his brand in the conspiracy principle market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight households who lost family members within the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School additionally gained a defamation case in opposition to Jones in 2021, a hearing was deliberate in Connecticut chapter courtroom on Tuesday that is anticipated to lead to the same final result as the Texas cases.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 submitting put on maintain the two trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal court docket trumps state proceedings. Lawyers for families right 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 mixed monthly income of $38,000 while Jones himself made no less than $76 million in 2019, his representatives mentioned in court docket.

In response, the families dropped Jones’ three business entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. Because the families not had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits towards Jones and Free Speech methods 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 party 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 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