Alex Jones back on the hook for damages after chapter choose sends Sandy Hook circumstances to Texas courtroom

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy decide has released extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 safety and sent his defamation instances back to state courtroom in Texas, the place the dad and mom of two boys slain in the Sandy Hook bloodbath 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 of the others,” mentioned Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing 4 dad and mom who received two defamation circumstances in opposition to Jones in Texas last year. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom in 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 chapter courtroom the place three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 protection one week earlier than a jury trial was to start to determine what damages Jones owed two dad and mom he defamed when he called the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “utterly faux with actors.”

The bankruptcy judge’s ruling means the primary postponed defamation awards trial in Texas may begin as soon as June, Bankston advised.

Among the disclosures that got here out of the chapter court hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation cases have progressed. Jones has spent at the least $10 million on legal fees and has misplaced no less than $20 million, his representatives said in court docket. Jones did not file for chapter safety himself, his consultant mentioned in court, as a result of he feared it might injury his model in the conspiracy theory market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight households who lost loved ones in the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School also gained a defamation case in opposition to Jones in 2021, a listening to was deliberate in Connecticut bankruptcy court docket on Tuesday that is expected to lead to an analogous final 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 submitting put on maintain the 2 trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal courtroom trumps state proceedings. Legal professionals for families right here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “unhealthy religion” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech methods did not file for bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a mixed monthly revenue of $38,000 while Jones himself made at the least $76 million in 2019, his representatives mentioned in courtroom.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three business entities in chapter from their lawsuits. Because the households not had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits in opposition to Jones and Free Speech systems could possibly be released back to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their goal was Jones himself and Free Speech Methods, who were not occasion to the bankruptcies.

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

It remains to be seen whether Connecticut bankruptcy court docket 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