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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy judge has released extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and sent his defamation circumstances again to state court in Texas, where the mother and father of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook massacre await jury trials to see how much Jones must pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not surprised that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all the others,” stated Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing 4 parents who received two defamation circumstances in opposition to Jones in Texas last yr. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom within 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 where three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 protection one week before a jury trial was to start to determine what damages Jones owed two dad and mom he defamed when he called the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “an enormous hoax,” and “fully fake with actors.”

The bankruptcy judge’s ruling means the first postponed defamation awards trial in Texas may begin 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 cases have progressed. Jones has spent no less than $10 million on authorized fees and has lost at the least $20 million, his representatives said in court. Jones did not file for bankruptcy safety himself, his consultant mentioned in courtroom, as a result of he feared it could injury his model in the conspiracy theory market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight families who misplaced family members in the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School additionally received a defamation case towards Jones in 2021, a listening to was deliberate in Connecticut chapter courtroom on Tuesday that's expected to lead to an identical outcome as the Texas cases.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 submitting placed on hold the two trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal court docket trumps state proceedings. Lawyers 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 did not file for chapter. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a combined monthly income of $38,000 while Jones himself made not less than $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in court docket.

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 programs could be released back to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their goal was Jones himself and Free Speech Techniques, who were not party to the bankruptcies.

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

It stays 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