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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy judge has released extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and despatched his defamation cases back 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 a lot Jones will have to pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not shocked that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all of the others,” mentioned Mark Bankston, an legal professional representing 4 parents who gained two defamation instances in opposition to Jones in Texas last yr. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom in the coming weeks, and these households will lastly 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 referred to as the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a large hoax,” and “fully fake with actors.”

The bankruptcy decide’s ruling means the primary postponed defamation awards trial in Texas might start as quickly as June, Bankston prompt.

Among the disclosures that got here out of the bankruptcy court docket hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation cases have progressed. Jones has spent no less than $10 million on legal fees and has lost at the least $20 million, his representatives mentioned in court. Jones did not file for bankruptcy protection himself, his consultant said in court docket, because he feared it could injury his brand in the conspiracy principle market.

In the meantime in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight families who misplaced family members within the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty also gained a defamation case in opposition to Jones in 2021, a hearing was deliberate in Connecticut bankruptcy court on Tuesday that's expected to lead to an analogous final result as the Texas circumstances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 submitting placed on hold the 2 trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal courtroom trumps state proceedings. Attorneys for households 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 chapter. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a combined month-to-month income of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made at the very least $76 million in 2019, his representatives mentioned in courtroom.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in bankruptcy 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 systems could be released again to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their goal was Jones himself and Free Speech Methods, 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 Connecticut bankruptcy 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