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

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter judge has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 safety and despatched his defamation cases back to state court docket in Texas, where the dad and mom of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook bloodbath await jury trials to see how much Jones will have to pay them.

“(We) are relieved however not shocked that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all of the others,” mentioned Mark Bankston, an legal professional representing four mother and father who won two defamation circumstances towards Jones in Texas last yr. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom within 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 bankruptcy court the place three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 safety one week before a jury trial was to begin to determine what damages Jones owed two mother and father he defamed when he referred to as the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “a large hoax,” and “utterly 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 many disclosures that came out of the chapter courtroom 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 charges and has misplaced at the least $20 million, his representatives stated in court. Jones did not file for chapter safety himself, his consultant mentioned in courtroom, because he feared it would injury his model in the conspiracy principle market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight families who lost family members in the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary College additionally received a defamation case towards Jones in 2021, a hearing was planned in Connecticut chapter court docket on Tuesday that's expected to result in the same consequence because the Texas instances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 filing put on hold the two trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal courtroom trumps state proceedings. Legal professionals for households here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “dangerous religion” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech programs didn't file for chapter. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 protection have a mixed monthly income of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made at the least $76 million in 2019, his representatives mentioned in court.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three business entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. Because the families no longer had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits in opposition to Jones and Free Speech systems may very well be launched back to the state courts for trial. The families 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 stays to be seen whether or not Connecticut chapter court docket will rule similarly. The trial to award defamation damages to the Sandy Hook families in Connecticut had been scheduled for August.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342