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

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter judge has launched extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and despatched his defamation circumstances again to state court in Texas, where the dad and mom of two boys slain within the Sandy Hook massacre await jury trials to see how much Jones should pay them.

“(We) are relieved however not stunned that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all of the others,” mentioned Mark Bankston, an attorney representing four dad and mom who gained two defamation circumstances towards Jones in Texas last 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 courtroom where three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 safety one week earlier than a jury trial was to start to find out what damages Jones owed two mother and father he defamed when he called the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a large hoax,” and “utterly pretend with actors.”

The bankruptcy decide’s ruling means the primary postponed defamation awards trial in Texas could begin as quickly as June, Bankston urged.

Among the disclosures that got here out of the chapter courtroom hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation circumstances have progressed. Jones has spent no less than $10 million on authorized fees and has misplaced not less than $20 million, his representatives mentioned in court docket. Jones didn't file for bankruptcy protection himself, his representative mentioned in court, as a result of he feared it will harm his brand in the conspiracy concept market.

In the meantime in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight households who lost family members within the bloodbath of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary Faculty additionally won a defamation case towards Jones in 2021, a hearing was deliberate in Connecticut chapter court docket on Tuesday that is expected to result in an analogous end result because the Texas cases.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 submitting put on maintain the 2 trials in Texas and the third deliberate in Connecticut, since federal court trumps state proceedings. Lawyers 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 methods didn't file for chapter. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 safety have a combined month-to-month income of $38,000 while Jones himself made not less than $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in court.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in chapter from their lawsuits. As a result of the households now not had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits in opposition to Jones and Free Speech methods could possibly be launched back to the state courts for trial. The households argued that their goal was Jones himself and Free Speech Programs, who weren't get together to the bankruptcies.

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

It stays to be seen whether or not Connecticut chapter 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