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

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter decide has released extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 safety and despatched his defamation cases back to state court docket in Texas, where the parents of two boys slain in the Sandy Hook massacre await jury trials to see how much Jones must pay them.

“(We) are relieved however not shocked that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all the others,” stated Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing four mother and father who won two defamation instances in opposition to Jones in Texas last 12 months. “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 courtroom where three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 protection one week earlier than a jury trial was to begin to find out what damages Jones owed two dad and mom he defamed when he referred to as the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “an enormous hoax,” and “utterly pretend with actors.”

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

Among the many 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 no less than $10 million on authorized fees and has lost at the very least $20 million, his representatives mentioned in court. Jones did not file for bankruptcy safety himself, his representative said in court docket, because he feared it might harm his model within the conspiracy theory market.

In the meantime in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight households who lost loved ones within the bloodbath of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School also won a defamation case in opposition to Jones in 2021, a listening to was deliberate in Connecticut bankruptcy courtroom on Tuesday that's anticipated to end in an identical outcome because the Texas instances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 submitting placed on maintain the 2 trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal court trumps state proceedings. Attorneys for families here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “dangerous religion” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech programs did not file for chapter. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a combined month-to-month income of $38,000 while Jones himself made at the least $76 million in 2019, his representatives stated in court docket.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. As a result of the households now not had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits in opposition to Jones and Free Speech programs might be launched back to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their goal was Jones himself and Free Speech Methods, who weren't occasion 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 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