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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy judge has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and despatched his defamation cases back to state court docket in Texas, the place the parents of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook massacre await jury trials to see how much Jones must pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not stunned that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all the others,” stated Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing 4 mother and father who received two defamation cases in opposition to Jones in Texas final yr. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom within the coming weeks, and these households will lastly have the closure and recompense they deserve.”

Bankston was referring to a month-long saga in Texas chapter courtroom where three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 protection one week earlier than 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 large hoax,” and “completely faux with actors.”

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

Among the many disclosures that came out of the chapter court hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation cases have progressed. Jones has spent at least $10 million on legal charges and has lost at the least $20 million, his representatives stated in court docket. Jones didn't file for bankruptcy protection himself, his consultant stated in court docket, because he feared it might damage his model within the conspiracy principle market.

In the meantime in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight households who misplaced family members within the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary College also gained a defamation case against Jones in 2021, a hearing was planned in Connecticut bankruptcy court on Tuesday that is anticipated to end in an analogous final result as the Texas cases.

The rationale 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 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 methods did not file for chapter. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 protection have a mixed month-to-month revenue of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made at the very least $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in courtroom.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. As a result of the families not had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits against Jones and Free Speech methods might be released back to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their goal was Jones himself and Free Speech Techniques, who weren't celebration to the bankruptcies.

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

It remains to be seen whether Connecticut chapter court will rule equally. The trial to award defamation damages to the Sandy Hook families in Connecticut had been scheduled for August.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342