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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy judge has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 safety and despatched his defamation circumstances back to state court in Texas, the place the dad and mom of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook bloodbath await jury trials to see how much Jones should pay them.

“(We) are relieved however not surprised that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all of the others,” stated Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing 4 dad and mom who won two defamation instances towards Jones in Texas last 12 months. “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 courtroom the place three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 protection one week before a jury trial was to begin to find out what damages Jones owed two mother and father he defamed when he called the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “completely fake with actors.”

The chapter decide’s ruling means the primary postponed defamation awards trial in Texas might begin as quickly as June, Bankston instructed.

Among the many disclosures that got here out of the chapter court docket hearings is that Jones has suffered financially as the Sandy Hook defamation cases have progressed. Jones has spent at the least $10 million on legal charges and has misplaced a minimum of $20 million, his representatives mentioned in court. Jones did not file for chapter safety himself, his consultant said in courtroom, because he feared it would harm his brand in the conspiracy theory 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 School additionally received a defamation case against Jones in 2021, a listening to was planned in Connecticut bankruptcy court on Tuesday that's expected to end in the same consequence because the Texas circumstances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 submitting put on hold the 2 trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal court trumps state proceedings. Legal professionals for families here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “dangerous religion” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech techniques did not file for bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a mixed monthly revenue of $38,000 while Jones himself made no less than $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in courtroom.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three business entities in chapter from their lawsuits. As a result of the families no longer had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits in opposition to Jones and Free Speech programs might be released again to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their target 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 remains to be seen whether Connecticut chapter court will rule similarly. The trial to award defamation damages to the Sandy Hook families in Connecticut had been scheduled for August.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342