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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy judge has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 safety and despatched his defamation circumstances back to state court in Texas, the place the mother and father 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 surprised that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all the others,” mentioned Mark Bankston, an attorney representing four mother and father who gained two defamation instances towards Jones in Texas final year. “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 the place three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 safety one week earlier than a jury trial was to begin to determine what damages Jones owed two parents he defamed when he referred to as the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “a large hoax,” and “fully fake with actors.”

The chapter choose’s ruling means the primary postponed defamation awards trial in Texas might begin as quickly as June, Bankston suggested.

Among the disclosures that came out of the chapter courtroom hearings is that Jones has suffered financially as the Sandy Hook defamation cases have progressed. Jones has spent a minimum of $10 million on legal charges and has misplaced at the least $20 million, his representatives stated in court. Jones didn't file for chapter protection himself, his representative stated in court docket, because he feared it might injury his brand within the conspiracy concept market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight families who misplaced family members in the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary College additionally won a defamation case against Jones in 2021, a hearing was deliberate in Connecticut bankruptcy court on Tuesday that is anticipated to end in an analogous end result as 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 put on hold the 2 trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal courtroom trumps state proceedings. Attorneys for families here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “bad faith” 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 mixed month-to-month earnings of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made no less than $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in courtroom.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in chapter from their lawsuits. As a result of the families now not had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits against Jones and Free Speech methods 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 were not celebration to the bankruptcies.

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

It stays to be seen whether Connecticut bankruptcy 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