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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy decide has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 safety and despatched his defamation instances again to state court in Texas, the place the dad and mom 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 however not stunned that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all of the others,” mentioned Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing 4 mother and father who received two defamation circumstances in opposition to 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 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 safety one week before a jury trial was to begin to find out 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 “utterly pretend with actors.”

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

Among the disclosures that got here out of the chapter court hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation cases have progressed. Jones has spent at the very least $10 million on legal fees and has lost a minimum of $20 million, his representatives said in court. Jones didn't file for chapter protection himself, his representative stated in court, because he feared it could harm his model within the conspiracy theory 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 additionally won a defamation case towards Jones in 2021, a listening to was deliberate in Connecticut chapter court docket on Tuesday that's anticipated to end in the same final result because the Texas instances.

The rationale has to do with a maneuver the Sandy Hook households took here and in Texas to outflank Jones in chapter court.

Jones’ Chapter 11 filing put on hold the two 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 faith” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech techniques didn't file for bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 protection have a combined monthly earnings of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made at least $76 million in 2019, his representatives mentioned in court.

In response, the families dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. As a result of the households no longer had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits against Jones and Free Speech techniques might be released back to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their goal was Jones himself and Free Speech Programs, who were not get together to the bankruptcies.

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

It stays to be seen whether or not Connecticut chapter 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