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

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy choose has released extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and despatched his defamation circumstances back to state court docket in Texas, where the mother and father of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook bloodbath await jury trials to see how a lot Jones must pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not shocked that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all of the others,” stated Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing 4 parents who received two defamation cases towards Jones in Texas last 12 months. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom in the coming weeks, and these families will lastly have the closure and recompense they deserve.”

Bankston was referring to a month-long saga in Texas chapter court the place three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 protection one week before a jury trial was to begin to find out what damages Jones owed two mother and father he defamed when he known as the worst crime in Connecticut historical past “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “an enormous hoax,” and “completely fake with actors.”

The bankruptcy decide’s ruling means the primary postponed defamation awards trial in Texas might start as soon as June, Bankston steered.

Among the disclosures that came out of the bankruptcy courtroom hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation cases have progressed. Jones has spent at the very least $10 million on legal charges and has lost at the very least $20 million, his representatives mentioned in court. Jones did not file for bankruptcy safety himself, his consultant mentioned in courtroom, because he feared it would damage his brand within the conspiracy theory market.

In the meantime 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 School also won a defamation case against Jones in 2021, a hearing was deliberate in Connecticut chapter court on Tuesday that is expected to end in the same final result as the Texas circumstances.

The reason has to do with a maneuver the Sandy Hook families took here and in Texas to outflank Jones in chapter courtroom.

Jones’ Chapter 11 submitting placed on maintain the two trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal court trumps state proceedings. Lawyers for families right here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “dangerous faith” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech systems didn't file for chapter. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a combined month-to-month revenue of $38,000 while 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 chapter from their lawsuits. Because the families not had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits towards Jones and Free Speech methods may very well be released back to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Systems, who weren't social gathering 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 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