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

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter choose has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 safety and sent his defamation cases back to state courtroom in Texas, where the parents of two boys slain in the Sandy Hook massacre 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 the others,” mentioned Mark Bankston, an attorney representing four mother and father who received two defamation circumstances in opposition to Jones in Texas final yr. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom in the coming weeks, and these households will finally have the closure and recompense they deserve.”

Bankston was referring to a month-long saga in Texas chapter courtroom where three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 protection one week earlier than 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,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “fully faux with actors.”

The bankruptcy judge’s ruling means the first postponed defamation awards trial in Texas might begin as soon as June, Bankston suggested.

Among the many disclosures that got here out of the chapter court docket 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 lost no less than $20 million, his representatives mentioned in court docket. Jones didn't file for chapter safety himself, his representative said in court docket, as a result of he feared it could harm his brand in the conspiracy concept market.

In the meantime in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight families who lost loved ones in the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary College also gained a defamation case against Jones in 2021, a listening to was deliberate in Connecticut chapter court on Tuesday that is expected to result in the same end result because the Texas instances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 filing placed on hold the 2 trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal courtroom trumps state proceedings. Lawyers for households right 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 safety have a mixed month-to-month income of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made at least $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in court docket.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in chapter from their lawsuits. As a result of the families now not had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits in opposition to Jones and Free Speech programs could be launched again to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Techniques, who were not party to the bankruptcies.

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

It remains 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