Alex Jones back on the hook for damages after bankruptcy judge sends Sandy Hook cases to Texas court

NEWTOWN — A federal bankruptcy judge has released extremist Alex Jones from Chapter 11 protection and sent his defamation cases back to state court in Texas, where the parents of two boys slain in the Sandy Hook massacre await jury trials to see how much Jones will have to pay them.

“(We) are relieved but not surprised that Mr. Jones’ latest stunt has failed like all the others,” said Mark Bankston, an attorney representing four parents who won two defamation cases against Jones in Texas last year. “Mr. Jones will now be held to account in a Travis County courtroom in the coming weeks, and these families will finally have the closure and recompense they deserve.”

Bankston was referring to a month-long saga in Texas bankruptcy court where three Jones-controlled entities filed for Chapter 11 protection one week before a jury trial was to begin to determine what damages Jones owed two parents he defamed when he called the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “completely fake with actors.”

The bankruptcy judge’s ruling means the first postponed defamation awards trial in Texas could begin as soon as June, Bankston suggested.

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

Meanwhile in Connecticut, where an FBI agent and eight families who lost loved ones 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 planned in Connecticut bankruptcy court on Tuesday that is expected to result in a similar outcome as the Texas cases.

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

Jones’ Chapter 11 filing put on hold the two trials in Texas and the third planned in Connecticut, since federal court trumps state proceedings. Lawyers for families here and in Texas fought Jones’ Chapter 11 petitions as “bad faith” filings, since Jones himself and his money-making Free Speech systems did not file for bankruptcy. The three Jones-controlled entities that sought Chapter 11 protection have a combined monthly income of $38,000 while Jones himself made at least $76 million in 2019, his representatives said in court.

In response, the families dropped Jones’ three business entities in bankruptcy from their lawsuits. Because the families no longer had a stake in the bankruptcies, they argued, their lawsuits against Jones and Free Speech systems could be released back to the state courts for trial. The families argued that their target was Jones himself and Free Speech Systems, who were not party to the bankruptcies.

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

It remains to be seen whether Connecticut bankruptcy court will rule similarly. The trial to award defamation damages to the Sandy Hook families in Connecticut had been scheduled for August.