Alex Jones still must pay $1B judgment: Judge

Right-wing provocateur and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones must pay greater than $1 billion in damages to households suffering from the Sandy Hook Elementary School bloodbath in Connecticut, regardless of Jones’ submitting for chapter, a federal chapter courtroom pass judgement on has dominated.

Jones filed for Chapter 11 coverage in December after he used to be ordered to pay compensatory and punitive damages for many times defaming the households via claiming for years that the 2012 killings of 20 scholars and 6 workforce contributors used to be a hoax, staged with actors as a part of a central authority plot to take hold of weapons.

Bankruptcy incessantly staves off criminal judgments however no longer if they’re the results of willful and malicious damage. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Christopher Lopez in Houston made up our minds that normal used to be glad in Jones’ case.

“[I]n Jones’s case, the language of the jury instruction confirms that the damages awarded flow from the allegation of intent to harm the Plaintiffs – not allegations of recklessness,” Lopez wrote in his ruling.

Jones used to be convicted via default of defaming the households via accusing them of faking their youngsters’s deaths, being disaster actors, and fraudulently misrepresenting themselves to the general public at huge. The verdict decided Jones harmed the households via spreading lies about them to his InfoWars website online and program target audience, and to the general public via urging folks to analyze the alleged hoax.

“The families are pleased with the Court’s ruling that Jones’ malicious conduct will find no safe harbor in the bankruptcy court. As a result, Jones will continue to be accountable for his actions into the future regardless of his bankruptcy,” stated Chris Mattei, an lawyer at Koskoff Koskoff and Bieder, who represents the Sandy Hook households.