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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy judge has released extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and despatched his defamation cases back to state courtroom in Texas, where the parents of two boys slain in the Sandy Hook bloodbath await jury trials to see how much Jones will have to pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not shocked that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all of the others,” stated Mark Bankston, an legal professional representing four mother and father who won two defamation instances 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 households will finally have the closure and recompense they deserve.”

Bankston was referring to a month-long saga in Texas chapter courtroom where 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 parents he defamed when he called the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a large hoax,” and “utterly fake with actors.”

The bankruptcy choose’s ruling means the primary postponed defamation awards trial in Texas may start as quickly as June, Bankston instructed.

Among the disclosures that came out of the chapter court docket hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation circumstances have progressed. Jones has spent at the least $10 million on legal charges and has misplaced at the very least $20 million, his representatives mentioned in court. Jones did not file for bankruptcy protection himself, his representative said in courtroom, as a result of he feared it will damage his model within the conspiracy principle market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight households who lost family members in the bloodbath of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School additionally gained a defamation case against Jones in 2021, a hearing was deliberate in Connecticut chapter court docket on Tuesday that is expected to result in an identical final result because the Texas circumstances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 submitting placed on hold the 2 trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal courtroom trumps state proceedings. Legal professionals for families right here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “dangerous 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 protection have a combined monthly revenue of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made a minimum of $76 million in 2019, his representatives stated in court docket.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. Because the families now not had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits towards Jones and Free Speech methods could be launched back to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Systems, who were not party to the bankruptcies.

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

It remains to be seen whether or not Connecticut bankruptcy court docket 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