NEW YORK, Feb 15 ― The parents of a six-year old child killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school massacre asked a US bankruptcy judge yesterday to allow them proceed to trial against right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who claimed for years that the shooting was a hoax.
Because Jones and his company are bankrupt, lawsuits against them cannot proceed without the permission of a bankruptcy judge. Jones has argued the trial would “accomplish little” at a “great deal of unnecessary expense.” He estimated a two-week trial would cost US$600,000, reducing the amount of money available to pay Pozner, De La Rosa and other Sandy Hook parents with legal claims against him.
Jones filed for personal bankruptcy in December after those two trials concluded, saying he could afford to pay less than 1 per cent of the Sandy Hook defamation judgments.