Alex Jones again on the hook for damages after bankruptcy choose sends Sandy Hook circumstances to Texas court docket

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter decide has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and despatched his defamation cases again to state court docket in Texas, the place the parents of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook massacre await jury trials to see how a lot Jones will have to pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not stunned that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all the others,” mentioned Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing 4 dad and mom who received two defamation instances towards 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 bankruptcy courtroom where three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 protection one week before a jury trial was to start to determine what damages Jones owed two mother and father he defamed when he referred to as the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “completely pretend with actors.”

The chapter decide’s ruling means the primary postponed defamation awards trial in Texas may begin as quickly as June, Bankston urged.

Among the disclosures that got here out of the chapter court docket hearings is that Jones has suffered financially as the Sandy Hook defamation instances have progressed. Jones has spent a minimum of $10 million on legal fees and has lost a minimum of $20 million, his representatives stated in court. Jones didn't file for chapter safety himself, his consultant stated in court, as a result of he feared it might harm his model within the conspiracy principle market.

In the meantime in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight families who misplaced loved ones within the bloodbath of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty also gained a defamation case against Jones in 2021, a hearing was planned in Connecticut chapter court docket on Tuesday that is expected to end in an analogous end result because the Texas circumstances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 filing placed on maintain the 2 trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal court docket trumps state proceedings. Legal professionals for families right here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “bad faith” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech techniques didn't file for bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 protection have a combined month-to-month revenue of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made a minimum of $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in court.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three business entities in chapter from their lawsuits. Because the households no longer had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits in opposition to Jones and Free Speech techniques could possibly be released back to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Techniques, who were not social gathering to the bankruptcies.

In rulings on Thursday and Friday, the federal chapter courtroom 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