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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy decide has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and sent his defamation instances back to state courtroom in Texas, where the parents of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook massacre await jury trials to see how a lot Jones should pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not surprised that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all the others,” said Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing 4 parents who won two defamation cases against Jones in Texas final year. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom within the coming weeks, and these families will lastly 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 before a jury trial was to start to find out what damages Jones owed two mother and father he defamed when he called the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “fully fake with actors.”

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

Among the many disclosures that came out of the chapter courtroom hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation circumstances have progressed. Jones has spent no less than $10 million on legal charges and has misplaced at least $20 million, his representatives mentioned in court. Jones didn't file for bankruptcy protection himself, his consultant mentioned in courtroom, because he feared it will injury his model in the conspiracy concept market.

In the meantime in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight households who misplaced loved ones within the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty also won a defamation case towards Jones in 2021, a listening to was planned in Connecticut bankruptcy courtroom on Tuesday that is expected to end in an analogous end result because the Texas cases.

The reason 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 two trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal courtroom trumps state proceedings. Lawyers for families here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “bad religion” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech programs didn't file for bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a combined month-to-month earnings of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made at least $76 million in 2019, his representatives mentioned in courtroom.

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

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

It remains to be seen whether or not Connecticut chapter courtroom 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