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

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter decide has released extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 safety and sent his defamation instances back to state courtroom in Texas, the place the parents of two boys slain in the Sandy Hook bloodbath await jury trials to see how a lot Jones should pay them.

“(We) are relieved however not surprised that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all of the others,” said Mark Bankston, an legal professional representing four mother and father who received two defamation circumstances against 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 courtroom the place three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 safety one week before a jury trial was to begin to find out what damages Jones owed two dad and mom he defamed when he called the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “a large hoax,” and “completely pretend with actors.”

The chapter choose’s ruling means the first postponed defamation awards trial in Texas might begin as soon as June, Bankston instructed.

Among the many disclosures that got here out of the chapter court docket hearings is that Jones has suffered financially as the Sandy Hook defamation cases have progressed. Jones has spent at the very least $10 million on legal charges and has misplaced not less than $20 million, his representatives said in court. Jones did not file for chapter safety himself, his consultant said in court, as a result of he feared it might injury his model in the conspiracy theory market.

In the meantime in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight families who misplaced loved ones in the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty also received a defamation case towards Jones in 2021, a hearing was deliberate in Connecticut bankruptcy courtroom on Tuesday that is anticipated to lead to the same outcome because the Texas instances.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 filing put on hold the 2 trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal court trumps state proceedings. Attorneys for families right here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “dangerous religion” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech programs did not file for chapter. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a combined monthly earnings of $38,000 while Jones himself made at the least $76 million in 2019, his representatives mentioned in court.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three business entities in chapter from their lawsuits. Because the households now not had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits in opposition to Jones and Free Speech techniques might be released back to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their goal was Jones himself and Free Speech Techniques, who were not celebration to the bankruptcies.

In rulings on Thursday and Friday, the federal bankruptcy court docket 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 families in Connecticut had been scheduled for August.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342