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

NEWTOWN — A federal chapter judge has released extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and sent his defamation instances again 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 much Jones will have to pay them.

“(We) are relieved however not shocked that Mr. Jones’ newest stunt has failed like all the others,” mentioned Mark Bankston, an lawyer representing four parents who won two defamation instances in opposition to Jones in Texas last 12 months. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom within 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 where three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 protection one week before a jury trial was to start to determine what damages Jones owed two mother and father he defamed when he called the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “artificial,” “manufactured,” “an enormous hoax,” and “completely fake with actors.”

The chapter decide’s ruling means the primary postponed defamation awards trial in Texas could begin as soon as June, Bankston instructed.

Among the disclosures that came out of the chapter court docket hearings is that Jones has suffered financially because the Sandy Hook defamation cases have progressed. Jones has spent no less than $10 million on legal fees and has misplaced not less than $20 million, his representatives said in court. Jones didn't file for chapter protection himself, his representative stated in court docket, because he feared it might harm his model in the conspiracy idea market.

In the meantime in Connecticut, the place an FBI agent and eight households who misplaced family members in the massacre of 26 first-graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School additionally won a defamation case in opposition to Jones in 2021, a listening to was planned in Connecticut bankruptcy courtroom on Tuesday that is anticipated to result in an identical outcome as the Texas circumstances.

The explanation 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 docket trumps state proceedings. Legal professionals for families here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “unhealthy 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 mixed monthly revenue of $38,000 while Jones himself made at least $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in courtroom.

In response, the households dropped Jones’ three enterprise entities in chapter from their lawsuits. Because the families no longer had a stake within the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits in opposition to Jones and Free Speech methods could be released back to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their goal was Jones himself and Free Speech Systems, who were not social gathering to the bankruptcies.

In rulings on Thursday and Friday, the federal bankruptcy court docket in Texas agreed.

It remains to be seen whether or not Connecticut chapter court 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