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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy decide has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 safety and despatched his defamation circumstances again to state court docket in Texas, where the dad and mom 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 however not stunned that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all the others,” mentioned Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing four parents who won two defamation circumstances 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 households will finally have the closure and recompense they deserve.”

Bankston was referring to a month-long saga in Texas bankruptcy court docket the place three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 safety one week before a jury trial was to begin to determine what damages Jones owed two mother and father he defamed when he referred to as the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “fully pretend with actors.”

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

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 instances have progressed. Jones has spent at least $10 million on legal fees and has misplaced at the least $20 million, his representatives said in court docket. Jones did not file for bankruptcy safety himself, his representative stated in court docket, because he feared it will injury his brand within the conspiracy theory market.

In the meantime in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight families who misplaced family members within the bloodbath of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School additionally gained a defamation case towards Jones in 2021, a hearing was deliberate in Connecticut bankruptcy court docket on Tuesday that is expected to lead to an identical outcome because the Texas cases.

The rationale 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 submitting put on maintain the two trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal court docket trumps state proceedings. Lawyers for families here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “dangerous religion” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech methods didn't file for bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 protection have a combined month-to-month earnings of $38,000 whereas Jones himself made no less than $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in court.

In response, the families dropped Jones’ three business entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. As a result of the families no longer had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits towards Jones and Free Speech programs may very well be launched again to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Systems, who were not occasion to the bankruptcies.

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

It stays to be seen whether Connecticut bankruptcy courtroom 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