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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy decide has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 safety and despatched his defamation cases again to state court docket in Texas, the place the parents of two boys slain in the Sandy Hook massacre await jury trials to see how much Jones will have to pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not stunned that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all of the others,” said Mark Bankston, an attorney representing 4 dad and mom who won two defamation circumstances against Jones in Texas final yr. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom in the coming weeks, and these families will lastly 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 protection one week earlier than a jury trial was to start to determine what damages Jones owed two parents he defamed when he referred to as the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “utterly faux with actors.”

The bankruptcy judge’s ruling means the first postponed defamation awards trial in Texas may start as soon as June, Bankston steered.

Among the disclosures that got here out of the bankruptcy court hearings is that Jones has suffered financially as the Sandy Hook defamation instances have progressed. Jones has spent no less than $10 million on legal fees and has lost not less than $20 million, his representatives mentioned in court docket. Jones didn't file for chapter protection himself, his consultant stated in court docket, because he feared it would damage his model within the conspiracy idea market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight households who lost loved ones in the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty also won a defamation case against Jones in 2021, a hearing was deliberate in Connecticut bankruptcy court on Tuesday that is expected to result in a similar consequence 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 chapter court.

Jones’ Chapter 11 filing put on maintain the two trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal court docket trumps state proceedings. Attorneys for households right here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “unhealthy faith” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech methods didn't file for chapter. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 protection have a combined month-to-month income of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made not less than $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in court docket.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three business entities in chapter from their lawsuits. As a result of the families now not had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits towards Jones and Free Speech methods could be released again to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their goal was Jones himself and Free Speech Techniques, who were not social gathering 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 bankruptcy 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