Alex Jones again on the hook for damages after chapter decide sends Sandy Hook circumstances to Texas court

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy decide has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and sent his defamation circumstances again to state court docket in Texas, where the parents of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook bloodbath await jury trials to see how a lot Jones should pay them.

“(We) are relieved however not shocked that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all the others,” said Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing four parents who gained two defamation cases towards 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 court docket the place 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 dad and mom he defamed when he known as the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “a large hoax,” and “fully pretend with actors.”

The chapter judge’s ruling means the first postponed defamation awards trial in Texas may begin as soon as June, Bankston recommended.

Among the disclosures that came out of the bankruptcy court docket hearings is that Jones has suffered financially as the Sandy Hook defamation cases have progressed. Jones has spent at the least $10 million on legal fees and has misplaced at the very least $20 million, his representatives said in courtroom. Jones did not file for bankruptcy protection himself, his representative stated in court, as a result of he feared it will injury his model in the conspiracy idea market.

In the meantime in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight households who misplaced family members in the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary College additionally won a defamation case against Jones in 2021, a hearing was deliberate in Connecticut bankruptcy courtroom on Tuesday that's anticipated to end in an analogous outcome because the Texas instances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 filing put on hold the two trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal court trumps state proceedings. Attorneys for households right here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “dangerous faith” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech methods didn't file for bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a mixed monthly revenue of $38,000 while 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 households no longer had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits towards Jones and Free Speech programs may very well be released again to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Programs, who were not celebration 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 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