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

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter decide has released extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 safety and sent his defamation cases back to state court docket in Texas, the place 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 shocked that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all of the others,” said Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing 4 mother and father who won two defamation cases against 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 bankruptcy court docket the place three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 safety one week before a jury trial was to start to determine what damages Jones owed two dad and mom he defamed when he referred to as the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “an enormous hoax,” and “utterly pretend with actors.”

The chapter decide’s ruling means the primary postponed defamation awards trial in Texas may start as quickly as June, Bankston steered.

Among the 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 the least $10 million on legal charges and has misplaced a minimum of $20 million, his representatives stated in courtroom. Jones didn't file for chapter safety himself, his representative said in court, because he feared it would harm his model in the conspiracy theory market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight households who lost family members in the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty additionally gained a defamation case towards Jones in 2021, a listening to was planned in Connecticut bankruptcy courtroom on Tuesday that is expected to lead to an analogous consequence as the Texas cases.

The explanation 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 filing put on maintain the two trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal court trumps state proceedings. Legal professionals for families here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “unhealthy religion” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech techniques didn't file for bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 protection have a combined monthly income of $38,000 while Jones himself made at the very least $76 million in 2019, his representatives mentioned in court.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three business entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. As a result of the families no longer had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits towards Jones and Free Speech methods could possibly be launched again to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Programs, who weren't occasion to the bankruptcies.

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

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

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342