Cowboys owner Jerry Jones asks judge to dismiss paternity lawsuit, likens it to extortion attempt
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is asking a Texas judge to dismiss the paternity lawsuit filed against him earlier this month, describing it as an extortion attempt.
In a document filed Monday in Dallas County, Jones' legal team argued that the paternity lawsuit – in which Alexandra Davis, 25, alleges that the Cowboys owner is her biological father – revolves around "hypothetical and contingent scenarios" and belongs in family court, rather than civil court.
Jones' lawyers also claimed that Davis sought a monetary settlement prior to filing her lawsuit, to "assure that he would not be publicly or privately identified" as Davis' father. They likened this to an extortion attempt.
"(Davis') 'let's make a deal' overtures were made at the same time (Jones) and the Dallas Cowboys were targets of multiple monetary extortion attempts," Jones' attorneys alleged in the filing. "The potential source(s) of those attempted extortions, including, without limitation, (Davis) and her agents, will be the subject of other litigation which has been filed or will be instituted shortly."
Davis' attorney, Andrew Bergman, told Paste BN Sports in an email Tuesday that the allegation of extortion is "abjectly false in every respect."
"Mr. Jones and his lawyers know that no request or demand for money was ever made by Ms. Davis in connection with this lawsuit, preceding this lawsuit, or since this lawsuit was filed," he said.
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An attorney for Jones did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Jones declined comment when asked about the lawsuit by reporters at the league meetings Monday, calling it a personal matter.
Paste BN Sports has not obtained a copy of the original lawsuit, which has been temporarily sealed by the court following a request from Jones' legal team. But multiple media outlets, including ESPN and The Dallas Morning News, obtained copies of the complaint prior to its sealing and have reported on its contents.
According to those media outlets, Davis alleges in the lawsuit that she was conceived from a relationship between Jones and her mother, Cynthia, in the mid-1990s and that the parties later agreed to a settlement in which Jones would support Davis and her mother so long as they didn't publicly identify him as her father.
In her lawsuit, Davis asks the court to determine whether she is legally bound by such an agreement. A lawyer for Davis told ESPN earlier this month that she wants to be able to state publicly that Jones is her father but "does not seek the recovery of money." ESPN also first reported the details of Monday's filing.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Thursday, when a judge is expected to decide whether the original lawsuit should remain under seal.
Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.