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Bankruptcy Judge Blocks Settlement in Alex Jones Sandy Hook Case
A bankruptcy judge has denied a proposed settlement involving the families of victims from the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, who had taken conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to court over his misleading statements about the tragic events of 2012.
On Wednesday, Judge Christopher Lopez, overseeing the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, stated that he could not approve the settlement negotiated between the families and Jones’s bankruptcy trustee. Lopez argued that their efforts to distribute Jones’s assets exceeded the jurisdiction of his court.
This ruling further complicates the planned sale of Jones’s Infowars platform and may heighten tensions among the victim families, especially those who secured significant financial judgments. While some families received nearly $1.3 billion in Connecticut courts, others were awarded $50 million in Texas courts. The proposed settlement aimed to allocate 25% of Jones’s future payments to the Texas families, while the Connecticut families would receive 75%.
During the court session, Lopez emphasized his inability to sanction the settlement by stating, “At its core, this is something I can’t approve.”
He suggested that the families and the bankruptcy trustee could resolve their issues through state court or come back with a revised settlement proposal, as reported by Courthouse News Service. “What this debtor needs, and what these families need, is finality in bankruptcy so they can pursue their remedies in state court, which is where they started,” Lopez added.
Lopez clarified that he blocked the settlement based on the request to divide assets of Free Speech Systems, the parent company of Infowars, which had been removed from bankruptcy proceedings in June of the previous year.
In comments made before Lopez’s ruling, Jones’s bankruptcy attorneys claimed that the real intent of the settlement motion was essentially to secure funds before the appellate courts reached decisions in ongoing appeals, suggesting that a reversal of judgments could prevent Jones from reclaiming those funds.
On the other hand, lawyers representing the Sandy Hook families countered that their proposed settlement would not hinder Jones’s ability to appeal the state court judgments. They viewed the settlement as a significant advancement in the case, aiming to resolve the amounts owed to what they characterized as Jones’s largest creditors—the Sandy Hook families—and facilitating the trustee’s ability to begin interim fund distributions.
Lopez’s recent decision follows his previous ruling in December, where he blocked a sale of Infowars to the Onion, a satirical news organization, on the grounds that the auction process had not yielded the most favorable offers.
Just before Lopez’s December ruling concerning the Onion, a Connecticut state appeals court upheld a $965 million verdict issued against Jones in 2022. Jones had previously declared personal bankruptcy during the same year.
In the wake of the 2012 shooting, which tragically claimed the lives of 20 children and six educators in Newtown, Connecticut, Jones propagated conspiracy theories suggesting that the incident was staged by “crisis actors” aiming to promote stricter gun control measures.
Source
www.theguardian.com