Hearing in Alex Jones bankruptcy case
One of the Texas cases was supposed to be in trial this week. The Jones bankruptcy attorneys remove the case to the Western District of Texas and moved the Connecticut case to a bankruptcy court in Connecticut. Right now, this mess is in three different bankruptcy courts which is nuts unless the goal is to slow things down. Both the Connecticut. and Texas plaintiffs have filed to send the case back to the state trial courts. I read the brief from the Texas plaintiffs, and they had fun pointing out the Texas courts have sanctioned Jones $1.3 million for discovery abuse, producing child porn as part of the discovery, threatening the plaintiff attorneys and lying to the court. Jones has gone through 10 sets of lawyers in the Texas case and the only attorneys currently of record are two weak criminal defense lawyers.
Both sets of plaintiffs have filed motions to dismiss the bankruptcy. Each motion was well done and Juanita Jean's son, Mark Bankston's, brief had fun pointing out that Jones has been fined $1.3 million for refusing to comply with the same disclosure requirements that Jones would have to comply with if he was a debtor in a Chapter 11. In addition, the US Trustee filed a very strong brief urging the court to dismiss this bankruptcy because it is in bad faith and misuse of bankruptcy for a tactical advantage. The judge seemed to like this brief.
I was able to get home from the office in time to hear the bankruptcy hearing. The judge let everyone speak their mind. The attorneys for Jones and the debtors kept on saying that if Jones is in a chapter 11, his show would be cancelled. Given that Jones is not on YouTube, twitter, Facebook or any other social media platform I have trouble seeing how this can happen. Again, Jones does not want to make the disclosures that he would have to make if he was a debtor in a Chapter 11.
One Jones attorney would not shut up and spoke for over 25 minutes and the hearing was an hour and five minutes. Jones wanted the court to appoint two trustees for the settlement trust today, but the Plaintiffs objected and got the court to consider the motions to dismiss. For purposes of appeal, the judge is going to hold a hearing on the motions to dismiss set out to give everyone time to file briefs. If the judge ruled today, there would be grounds for appeal. My setting the hearing over 21 days from the filing of the US Trustee motion, this removes one ground for appeal. This was to me a hint that the judge liked the US Trustee motion and brief.
Here is the setting of the nest hearing.
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The hearing was on both a telephone line and a video link where some Jones supporters were being assholes
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If anyone wants to watch the hearing, here is the information
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The fact that the judge set the hearing for the motion to dismiss first is a good thing. The hearing on the appointment of trustees and the approval of a one-sided trust agreement is set later.