INDIANAPOLIS — Dallas Cowboys vice president Stephen Jones, speaking for the first time since the public learned the organization had settled a voyeurism complaint against a longtime top executive made by four members of the team’s famed cheerleading squad, defended the environment within the organization on Monday while adding that such things could always be improved.
“I feel like we have a solid culture,” Jones said on the first day of the NFL’s week long scouting combine. “You can always be better. You strive to get better every day in every area. That would be my comment.”
Stephen Jones deferred to team owner Jerry Jones’ recent comments on NBC5 in what has been the only personal response from the family hierarchy regarding the $2.4 million settlement settlement and incident with Rich Dalrymple, the team’s vice president for communications who abruptly retired at the end of January.
Dalrymple, who had been with the organization for 32 years, said in a statement that the allegations were false.
The Cowboys said they found no evidence of wrongdoing by Dalrymple during their own internal investigation but decided to reach a settlement in the best interest of the organization.
“First of all, the cheerleaders are iconic,” Jerry Jones said. “A vital part of what our organization is, the Dallas Cowboys. We took these allegations very seriously. We immediately began to look-see, an investigation into the situation. I can assure you that had we found that it need be, there would have been firings or there would have been suspensions. As it turns out, in the best interest of our cheerleaders, and the best interest of the organization, in the best interest of our fans, what we decided to do was show the cheerleaders how seriously we took these allegations and we wanted them to know that we were real serious and so the settlement was the way to go.”
Jerry Jones will get a chance to add further comment when he talks to reporters later this week at the scouting combine.
The NFL has no plans to investigate the Cowboys further.
Dalrymple was accused of voyeurism by four members of Dallas Cowboys Cheeleaders while they were changing in their locker room before a 2015 event at AT&T Stadium. Each of the women received nearly $400,000 in a confidential settlement, with attorneys getting the rest, according to the ESPN report.
Dalrymple also was accused of taking “upskirt” photos of Charlotte Jones Anderson, a team vice president and the daughter of team owner Jerry Jones, in the Cowboys’ war room during the 2015 NFL Draft.
That accusation was made by a Cowboys fan who signed an affidavit that he was watching a livestream of the war room on the team’s website when he said he saw the alleged incident.
Jim Wilkinson, a public relations consultant hired by the Cowboys, said the Cowboys thoroughly investigated both alleged incidents and found no wrongdoing by Dalrymple and no evidence that he took photos or video of the women.
Dalrymple, who gained entry to the back door of the cheerleaders’ locked dressing room by using a security key card, told team officials he entered the cheerleaders’ locker room not knowing the women were there and left right away.
Dalrymple’s phone was confiscated and a team-ordered forensics investigation found no photos or videos had been taken or deleted.
Wilkinson also made it clear that the Cowboys found no evidence at all of the alleged upskirt incident. He said if Jerry Jones believed ”someone did anything like that to a member of his family, that person would have been fired immediately.”
Dalrymple worked six more years with the Cowboys before his retirement, which came several weeks after ESPN began investigating the 2015 incidents.
