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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy choose has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and despatched his defamation instances back to state court docket in Texas, where the mother and father of two boys slain in the Sandy Hook bloodbath await jury trials to see how a lot Jones should pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not stunned that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all the others,” stated Mark Bankston, an legal professional representing four mother and father who gained 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 families will finally have the closure and recompense they deserve.”

Bankston was referring to a month-long saga in Texas bankruptcy court docket where 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 parents he defamed when he known as the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “a large hoax,” and “utterly faux with actors.”

The chapter decide’s ruling means the first postponed defamation awards trial in Texas could begin as quickly as June, Bankston urged.

Among the many disclosures that got here out of the bankruptcy court docket hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation circumstances have progressed. Jones has spent not less than $10 million on legal charges and has lost a minimum of $20 million, his representatives said in court. Jones didn't file for chapter protection himself, his consultant stated in court, as a result of he feared it would damage his model within the conspiracy principle market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight households who misplaced loved ones within the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School also won a defamation case against Jones in 2021, a hearing was planned in Connecticut bankruptcy courtroom on Tuesday that is anticipated to lead to an analogous consequence as the Texas circumstances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 submitting put on maintain the two trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal courtroom trumps state proceedings. Attorneys for households right 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 month-to-month income of $38,000 while Jones himself made a minimum of $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in court docket.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. Because the households now not had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits in opposition to Jones and Free Speech programs might be released back to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Programs, who weren't celebration 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 equally. The trial to award defamation damages to the Sandy Hook families in Connecticut had been scheduled for August.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342