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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy decide has released extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and despatched his defamation instances 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 a lot Jones must pay them.

“(We) are relieved however not stunned that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all the others,” mentioned Mark Bankston, an attorney representing four dad and mom who received 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 within 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 court the place 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 parents he defamed when he known as the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “an enormous hoax,” and “completely fake with actors.”

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

Among the many disclosures that got here out of the bankruptcy court docket hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation circumstances have progressed. Jones has spent no less than $10 million on authorized fees and has misplaced at least $20 million, his representatives mentioned in court docket. Jones did not file for bankruptcy protection himself, his representative stated in courtroom, because he feared it could harm his brand within the conspiracy theory market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight households who misplaced loved ones in the bloodbath of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty also received a defamation case against Jones in 2021, a listening to was deliberate in Connecticut bankruptcy court docket on Tuesday that is anticipated to result in an analogous consequence because the Texas cases.

The reason 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 placed on hold the 2 trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal court trumps state proceedings. Legal professionals for families here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “bad religion” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech techniques did not file for bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 protection have a combined month-to-month revenue of $38,000 while Jones himself made at least $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in court.

In response, the families dropped Jones’ three business entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. As a result of the households no longer had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits against Jones and Free Speech programs might be released again to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Systems, who weren't social gathering to the bankruptcies.

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

It stays to be seen whether or not Connecticut bankruptcy court docket 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