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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy choose has released extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and despatched his defamation circumstances again to state courtroom in Texas, the place the parents of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook bloodbath await jury trials to see how a lot Jones must pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not surprised that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all of the others,” stated Mark Bankston, an attorney representing 4 mother and father who gained two defamation circumstances towards 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 households will finally have the closure and recompense they deserve.”

Bankston was referring to a month-long saga in Texas chapter court docket 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 mother and father he defamed when he called the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “an enormous hoax,” and “completely pretend with actors.”

The chapter decide’s ruling means the first postponed defamation awards trial in Texas could begin as soon as June, Bankston instructed.

Among the disclosures that came out of the chapter court 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 charges and has lost no less than $20 million, his representatives mentioned in court docket. Jones did not file for chapter safety himself, his consultant mentioned in court docket, as a result of he feared it will injury his model in the conspiracy idea market.

In the meantime in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight families who misplaced loved ones within the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty also received a defamation case towards Jones in 2021, a hearing was deliberate in Connecticut chapter court docket on Tuesday that is anticipated to lead to an identical outcome because the Texas circumstances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 filing placed on hold the two trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal courtroom trumps state proceedings. Legal professionals for households right here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “bad religion” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech systems didn't file for bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a combined monthly income of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made at least $76 million in 2019, his representatives mentioned in court docket.

In response, the families dropped Jones’ three business entities in chapter from their lawsuits. Because the families now not had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits against Jones and Free Speech techniques could possibly be launched again to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Techniques, who were not celebration 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 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