US judge allows cases against Alex Jones over Sandy Hook conspiracy theories to move forward despite bankruptcy filing
The families of Sandy Hook victims will not be able to seek collection on almost $US1.5 billion ($2.24 billion) from Infowars host Alex Jones despite a bankruptcy judge ruling cases against him can move forward.
Key points:
- The ruling by a federal bankruptcy judge allows cases against Alex Jones to go ahead
- However families cannot take action to collect damages they have already been awarded
- Jones claims it is impossible for him to pay the money he owes
The families took Jones to court earlier this year over his conspiracy theories about the 2012 school massacre.
Federal Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez has now approved an order that attorneys for Jones, his media company and the Sandy Hook families all agreed to.
The order, approved during an hour-and-a-half-long hearing that Jones attended remotely, lifted a stay that automatically halted the families’ cases when Jones filed for bankruptcy.
Free Speech Systems, Jones’s media company, has also sought bankruptcy protection.
However the ruling will not allow families to collect on the money Jones has been ordered to pay them.
Jones filed for Chapter 11 personal bankruptcy protection earlier this month in Texas, citing $US1 billion to $US10 billion in liabilities and $US1 million to $US10 million in assets.
For years, Jones described the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre as a hoax.
In October a Connecticut jury awarded victims’ families $US965 million in compensatory damages, and a judge later tacked on another $US473 million in punitive damages.
Earlier in the year, a Texas jury awarded the parents of a child killed in the shooting $US49 million in damages.
Jones has laughed at the payouts on his Infowars show, saying he has less than $US2 million to his name and will not be able to pay such high amounts.
Those comments contradicted the testimony of a forensic economist at the Texas trial, who said Jones and Free Speech Systems had a combined net worth as high as $US270 million.
In documents filed in July in Free Speech Systems’ bankruptcy case in Texas, a budget for the company for November 26 to December 23 estimated product sales would total nearly $US3 million, while operating expenses would be nearly $US739,000.
Jones’s salary is listed at $US20,000 every two weeks.
Mr Lopez delayed taking up a motion by Jones’s attorneys to force Free Speech Systems to pay the $US1.3 million listed under his contract, which would amount to about $US54,000 every two weeks.
Free Speech Systems’ monthly revenue has dropped to $US1.9 million from pre-bankruptcy levels of $US6 million to $US7 million.
The company’s attorneys have said they have about $US1.8 million in cash.
Mr Lopez said he would take up the issue at a hearing next month.
Sandy Hook families have alleged in another lawsuit in Texas that Jones hid millions of dollars in assets after victims’ relatives began taking him to court.
Jones’s lawyer denied the allegation.
A third trial over his comments on Sandy Hook is expected to begin within the next two months in Texas, in a lawsuit brought by the parents of another child killed in the shooting.
AP/Reuters
