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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy judge 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 bloodbath await jury trials to see how much Jones should pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not surprised that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all the others,” mentioned Mark Bankston, an attorney representing 4 dad and mom who gained two defamation instances against Jones in Texas final yr. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom within 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 bankruptcy court docket where three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 protection one week before a jury trial was to begin to determine what damages Jones owed two mother and father he defamed when he called the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “an enormous hoax,” and “fully fake with actors.”

The chapter decide’s ruling means the first postponed defamation awards trial in Texas may start as quickly as June, Bankston advised.

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 at least $10 million on legal charges and has lost not less than $20 million, his representatives stated in courtroom. Jones did not file for bankruptcy safety himself, his representative said in courtroom, as a result of he feared it would harm his model in the conspiracy theory market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight households who misplaced loved ones in the bloodbath of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty additionally gained a defamation case towards Jones in 2021, a listening to was deliberate in Connecticut bankruptcy court on Tuesday that's expected to result in an identical end result as the Texas cases.

The explanation 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 filing put on hold the 2 trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal court trumps state proceedings. Lawyers for households right here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “bad faith” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech techniques did not file for chapter. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 protection have a mixed monthly income of $38,000 while Jones himself made at the least $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in courtroom.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. As a result of the households no longer had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits against Jones and Free Speech systems may very well be launched again to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their goal was Jones himself and Free Speech Systems, who were not occasion to the bankruptcies.

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

It remains to be seen whether Connecticut chapter court will rule similarly. The trial to award defamation damages to the Sandy Hook households in Connecticut had been scheduled for August.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342