New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Conn. families object as judge gives Alex Jones breathing room
NEWTOWN – A federal judge gave Sandy Hook families awaiting defamation damages trials in Connecticut and Texas part of what they wanted on Friday by agreeing to hear their motions first to dismiss Alex Jones’ bankruptcies as “bad faith” filings.
But the judge also gave Jones’ attorneys part of what they wanted – enough breathing room to prepare an unhurried defense of their plan to pay the Sandy Hook families defamation damages Jones owes without putting his conspiracy platform Infowars out of business.
“These are really important issues for the families and important for the debtors,” Judge Christopher Lopez told a crowd of 60 attorneys and observers during a livestreamed conference in Southern Texas Bankruptcy Court. “I get it that no one likes the debtors, but they have a right to defend themselves just like anyone who comes before me.”
Although the only action Lopez took was to set hearing dates – the first on arguments to dismiss the bankruptcies of three former Jonescontrolled entities on May 27 – both sides were passionate.
One attorney representing parents of two slain Sandy Hook boys whose trials to award damages from defamation cases they won against Jones in Texas have been delayed called Jones’ 11-hour bankruptcy filings “unworthy and abusive.”
“I can’t think of a less worthy purpose for bankruptcy court than the rehabilitation and reorganization of companies that made tens of millions of dollars by lying,” said attorney Maxwell Beatty. “One of my clients held his son with a bullet hole in his head and Mr. Jones called him a liar.”
The father the attorney was referring to is Neil Heslin, whose son was among the 26 first-graders and educators slain in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Heslin and his son’s mother, Scarlett Lewis, were scheduled to start their jury trial to determine how much Jones owes them in damages last week.
Attorneys for Jones and the parent company of his broadcast and merchandising enterprise called Free Speech Systems were equally passionate. An attorney for FSS said before Jones filed for emergency bankruptcy protection, he was facing “financial deplatforming.”
“Spending millions of dollars on trials in two locations would consume assets and will not result in economic recovery… (because) the plaintiffs all have liability death penalties,” said FSS attorney Ray Battaglia. “The likely effect of a (jury trial) judgment would be to shut Free Speech Systems down.”
While neither Jones nor Free Speech Systems filed for bankruptcy protection, they have been preserved from defamation award trials for the time being in Texas and Connecticut, in part to ensure there is enough money to pay the Sandy Hook families when their claims are settled, Battaglia said.
Jones has suffered financially since he called the worst crime in Connecticut history “staged,” “synthetic,” “manufactured,” “a giant hoax,” and “completely fake with actors,” paying at least
$10 million in legal fees and losing at least $20 million because of the Sandy Hook lawsuits, his representatives said in court.
Jones, whose credibility in the conspiracy theory community was likened by one of his representatives in court to the Coca-Cola brand, did not want to file for bankruptcy himself for fear his product sales would suffer, representatives said in court.
The Sandy Hook families’ attorneys argued unsuccessfully in court on Friday that every day families wait for the judge to rule on the validity of Jones’ bankruptcy claims, they are spending money they don’t have.
“The creditors here are different than regular creditors because they are victims, and right now the victims are spending money,” said Beatty, who asked the judge to schedule the dismissal hearing next week. “This is incurring fees … on people who have already suffered enough.”
Jones’ lead bankruptcy attorney argued his client deserved equal consideration.
“No matter how bad Mr. Jones’ conduct was, the (bankruptcy) parties are entitled to due process,” said attorney Kyung Lee. “You have to give us 21 days’ notice.”
The judge gave Jones one month.
“I am giving everyone a lot of time because I want everyone to put up their best evidence,” Lopez said. “I am going to be deliberate and not rush anything, but you are going to get an answer from me really fast.”
rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342