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

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter decide has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and sent his defamation cases again to state courtroom in Texas, where the parents of two boys slain in the Sandy Hook bloodbath await jury trials to see how much Jones must pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not surprised that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all of the others,” stated Mark Bankston, an attorney representing four parents who received two defamation cases towards Jones in Texas last year. “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 courtroom where three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 safety one week earlier than a jury trial was to start to determine what damages Jones owed two mother and father he defamed when he known as the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “an enormous hoax,” and “fully pretend with actors.”

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

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 least $10 million on legal fees and has lost a minimum of $20 million, his representatives mentioned in court docket. Jones did not file for bankruptcy safety himself, his consultant said in courtroom, as a result of he feared it might damage his model in the conspiracy principle market.

Meanwhile in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight households who lost loved ones within the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty also received a defamation case towards Jones in 2021, a listening to was deliberate in Connecticut chapter court on Tuesday that is expected to end in a similar outcome because the Texas cases.

The rationale has to do with a maneuver the Sandy Hook households took here and in Texas to outflank Jones in bankruptcy court.

Jones’ Chapter 11 filing put on hold the 2 trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal court docket trumps state proceedings. Attorneys for families right here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “unhealthy faith” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech programs didn't file for bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a combined monthly income of $38,000 while Jones himself made not less than $76 million in 2019, his representatives stated in court.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three business entities in chapter from their lawsuits. Because the households now not had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits in opposition to Jones and Free Speech methods may very well be launched again to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Techniques, 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 bankruptcy 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