Alex Jones filed for bankruptcy for the first time in 2022 to delay the start of a Texas libel trial for the parents of a murdered Sandy Hook boy. And for that malicious delay, Jones’ attorney was ordered to pay $97,000 to the parents’ attorneys, a judge ruled.
“Our clients are delighted that Mr Jones’ attorney is having to pay for his ridiculous antics,” said Mark Bankston, principal counsel for Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis. They were awarded $49 million in August after Jones’ first bankruptcy case was dismissed by federal court and the Texas libel trial was conducted.
Jones’ Texas attorney Andino Reynal told Hearst Connecticut Media on Friday that he was debating the cost of an appeal, arguing he was not the attorney who filed for bankruptcy for three of Jones’ shell companies just days before Heslin’s defamation trial began signed up and Lewis.
“Any court reviewing this decision would find that it is not supported by either the facts or the law,” Reynal said Friday.
Reynal was referring to a late April decision by Travis County District Court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble ordering Reynal to pay Sandy Hook’s parents’ attorney $63,000 in bankruptcy court costs and a $25,000 fine for ” false pleadings, unreasonable removal and malicious disruption of the process”. “among other fees.
Guerra Gamble also ruled that Reynal would have to pay an additional $115,000 “should an appeal be made against the court’s verdict.”
The sanctions against Jones’ Texas attorney come in the latest aftermath of two high-profile defamation lawsuits involving Sandy Hook families in 2022.
The second was the $965 million award Jones was ordered to pay by a Waterbury jury to eight Sandy Hook families and an FBI agent after Jones found out about the murder of 26 first graders and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School as “staged”, “synthetic”. fabricated”, “a giant hoax” and “completely faked with actors”. The Connecticut judge overseeing the month-long Waterbury trial added an additional $473 million that Jones families had to pay in punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.
As Jones struggles to survive in private bankruptcy court, the focus is on motions to penalize his attorneys in Texas and Connecticut on misconduct allegations. In January, Supreme Court Justice Barbara Bellis suspended the license of high-profile New Haven attorney Norm Pattis for six months for his role as attorney for Jones in leaking confidential Sandy Hook family medical records to Reynal.
Pattis is appealing this decision. Reynal was not sanctioned by Bellis for his role in leaking the Sandy Hook families’ medical records, “despite (the court’s) finding of wrongdoing on the part of (Reynal),” Bellis wrote. However, if Reynal wants to approach a judge to represent a Connecticut case, Reynal must disclose Bellis’ 45-page judgment.
Meanwhile, a Texas jury is scheduled for October to determine how much Jones must pay the parents of another Sandy Hook boy who was killed in the 2012 mass school shooting.
