Sandy Hook families’ defamation damages trial against Alex Jones to move forward in CT

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

BRIDGEPORT — A federal judge cleared the way for Sandy Hook families to have the defamation lawsuit they won against Alex Jones released from bankruptcy protection and returned to state court, where a trial to determine the damages Jones must pay had been set for August.

After a brief status conference on Tuesday, federal bankruptcy Judge Julie Manning got commitments from both sides to submit an agreement for the families to drop three Jones-controlled entities currently in bankruptcy protection from the defamation lawsuit the families won last year. Once Manning sanctions the agreement, it will allow the families to prepare for trial to determine how much money Jones will pay for calling the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “completely fake with actors.”

The Sandy Hook families will be free to pursue their damages because they will no longer be party to the three Jones-controlled businesses in bankruptcy. The families’ target will be Jones himself and his parent company Free Speech Systems, which technically were not part of the bankruptcy filing, but which benefited from the automatic “stay” that federal bankruptcy cases have over state courts.

The agreement reached in bankruptcy court Tuesday will also end a month-long saga for an FBI agent and eight families who lost loved ones in 2012, when a gunman killed 26 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

The saga began when Jones sought bankruptcy protection for three of his business entities just one week before the first of two jury award trials were set to begin in Texas, where the parents of two slain Sandy Hook boys also won separate defamation cases against Jones last year.

The Sandy Hook families here and in Texas accused Jones of “bad-faith” bankruptcy filings, since the three businesses in question had a combined monthly income of $38,000. Jones himself made at least $76 million in 2019 through his conspiracy-based internet merchandise and broadcast platform, Infowars, his representatives said in court.

Last week, a federal bankruptcy judge in Texas released Jones from Chapter 11 protection and sent his defamation cases back to state court in Texas. The first jury trial to award damages was expected to begin as soon as June.

On Tuesday in Connecticut, Manning expressed frustration that the case had persisted before her for weeks without a resolution.

She proposed a solution to Alinor Sterling, a Bridgeport attorney representing the Sandy Hook families, and Cameron Atkinson, a New Haven attorney representing Jones.

“I have wasted too much time with this back-and-forth on these cases,” Manning said. “If attorney Sterling drafts an order and attorney Atkinson agrees to a stipulated dismissal where everybody signs it removing the defendant debtors, is that going to suffice?”

“I can certainly make it happen, your honor,” Sterling said.

What happens for Jones with three defamation damages trials pending is unclear.

Bankruptcy was Jones’ “good faith” effort to “pay creditors and pay them in an equal fashion,” his representatives said in court.

Jones has already spent $10 million on attorney fees and has lost at least $20 million because of the defamation lawsuits, according to his representatives.