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

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter choose has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 safety and sent his defamation circumstances back to state court in Texas, the place the dad and mom of two boys slain in the Sandy Hook bloodbath await jury trials to see how much Jones must pay them.

“(We) are relieved however not surprised that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all the others,” stated Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing 4 parents who received two defamation cases against 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 safety 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 referred to as the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “fully pretend with actors.”

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

Among the many disclosures that got here out of the bankruptcy court docket hearings is that Jones has suffered financially as the Sandy Hook defamation cases have progressed. Jones has spent not less than $10 million on authorized charges and has lost at the very least $20 million, his representatives said in courtroom. Jones did not file for chapter protection himself, his representative mentioned in court docket, because he feared it might harm his model in the conspiracy theory market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight families who lost family members in the bloodbath of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary College also gained a defamation case towards Jones in 2021, a listening to was planned in Connecticut chapter courtroom on Tuesday that is expected to lead to the same outcome as the Texas circumstances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 filing put on maintain 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 “bad religion” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech programs did not file for bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a combined month-to-month revenue of $38,000 while Jones himself made a minimum of $76 million in 2019, his representatives mentioned in courtroom.

In response, the families dropped Jones’ three business entities in chapter from their lawsuits. As a result of the families not had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits in opposition to Jones and Free Speech systems could possibly be launched again to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Methods, who weren't occasion to the bankruptcies.

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

It remains to be seen whether 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