Sandy Hook families want Jones’ bankruptcies dismissed
NEWTOWN — Eight Sandy Hook families and an FBI agent who won a defamation case against conspiracy extremist Alex Jones have asked a federal judge to dismiss bankruptcies Jones filed for three of his business entities, which has stalled trials to award damages.
“These bankruptcy cases were filed to improperly delay these trials, attempt to liquidate (Sandy Hook families’) claims in this venue instead of by juries of their peers, and provide Jones and (his parent company Free Speech Systems) all of the protections of the bankruptcy process…without having to disclose relevant financial and business documentation,” writes the families’ attorney Ryan Chapple in Southern Texas Bankruptcy Court. “They have no valid
bankruptcy purpose, and they should be dismissed with prejudice as bad-faith filings so the (families) and the other Sandy Hook plaintiffs can continue with their constitutional rights to have the damages Jones inflicted upon them liquidated by a jury of their peers.”
The Sandy Hook families are asking bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez to throw out Jones’
Chapter 11 filings as soon as Friday, because “the delay and expense that will be suffered given that one trial date has already been lost, and others may be in jeopardy if the (families) are not allowed to proceed to liquidate their claims by jury trial.”
The families are challenging the bankruptcy filings of three Jonescontrolled business entities last week that stalled trials to award defamation damages to Sandy Hook families in Texas and Connecticut.
The first of those trials for the parents of a slain Sandy Hook first-grader was scheduled to being on Monday in Austin — the business home of Jones’ conspiracybased website and broadcast platform, “Infowars.”
A second defamation awards trial was set to follow in Texas for parents of another slain Sandy
Hook first-grader, followed by a defamation awards trial in August for the Sandy Hook families who won a defamation case against Jones in Connecticut.
Jones and his parent company Free Speech Systems did not file for bankruptcy because Jones was concerned his reputation would suffer in the conspiracy theory community, and it would diminish his ability to sell products to his listener base, his representative said in bankruptcy court last week.
The Sandy Hook families in the Texas cases last week asked the judge to deny Jones’ bankruptcy filings by attaching their complaint to that of a Justice Department official who oversees bankruptcy cases in southwest Texas. That official, U.S. Trustee Kevin Epstein, said in an objection that Jones’ filing “raises numerous questions — the answers to which may demonstrate these cases are an abuse of the bankruptcy system.”
Jones’ attorneys disagreed, saying the cases were a legitimate use of bankruptcy protection laws for Jones, who has spent $10 million on legal fees and has lost $20 million in sales as a result of the Sandy Hook defamation cases.
“[T]he parties have worked very hard in good faith to bring a proposal to pay creditors and pay them in an equal fashion,” Jones’ lead bankruptcy attorney Kyung Lee said in bankruptcy court last week.
A ruling may come as soon as Friday, when Lopez has scheduled a conference. Last week at the first hearing on the Jones’ bankruptcy cases, Lopez said he would take no action to sanction the bankruptcy process.