Judge: Alex Jones can’t use bankruptcy protection to avoid paying Sandy Hook families

HOUSTON — A Texas pass judgement on has dominated that Infowars host Alex Jones can not use bankruptcy protection to avoid paying greater than $1.1 billion to families who sued over his conspiracy theories that the Sandy Hook college bloodbath was once a hoax.

The determination is any other important defeat for Jones within the wake of juries in Texas and Connecticut punishing him over spreading falsehoods in regards to the country’s deadliest college capturing. U.S. District Judge Christopher Lopez of Houston issued the ruling Thursday.

Jones filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection closing 12 months and newer monetary paperwork submitted by way of his legal professionals put his private web price round $14 million. But Lopez dominated that the ones protections don’t follow over findings of “willful and malicious” habits.

“The families are pleased with the Court’s ruling that Jones’s malicious conduct will find no safe harbor in the bankruptcy court,” said Christopher Mattei, a Connecticut lawyer for the families. “As a result, Jones will continue to be accountable for his actions into the future regardless of his claimed bankruptcy.”

An attorney for Jones did not immediately return a message seeking comment Friday.

After 26 people were killed by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012, Jones made a false conspiracy theory a centerpiece of his programing on his flagship Infowars show. He told his audience last year he was “officially out of money” and has asked them to shop on his Infowars website to help keep him on the air.

But Jones’ personal spending topped $93,000 in July alone, including thousands of dollars on meals and entertainment, according to his monthly financial reports in the bankruptcy case. The spending stuck a nerve with Sandy Hook families as they have yet to collect any of the money that juries awarded them.

Sandy Hook families won nearly the $1.5 billion in judgments against Jones last year in lawsuits over repeated promotion of a false theory that the school shooting that ever happened.

The amount of money Jones owes Sandy Hook families could grow even larger. Another lawsuit is pending in Texas, brought by the parents of 6-year-old Noah Pozner, one of the children slain in the attack. A trial date has not yet been set.

Relatives of the sufferers testified on the trials about being stressed and threatened by way of Jones’ believers, who despatched threats or even faced the grieving families in individual, accusing them of being “crisis actors” whose kids by no means existed.