Jerry Jones and his legal team have requested the dismissal of a paternity case filed against him earlier this month after alleging the plaintiff, Alexandra Davis, attempted to extort the Cowboys owner for money prior to filing the lawsuit, according to a report from ESPN.
The request was made Monday in Dallas County court, and alleged Davis, a 25-year-old congressional aide, was involved in one of ”multiple monetary extortion attempts” against Jones and the team.
According to Jones’s lawyers, Davis sent a draft of the lawsuit to the 79-year-old on an unspecified date prior to filing on March 3, and asked if he would “make a deal” to “assure that he would not be publicly or privately identified” as her father.
“She is not entitled to the relief she requests, and the Court does not have jurisdiction to grant it,” Jones’s lawyers wrote, per ESPN. The report then notes that Jones denied all allegations made by Davis in her lawsuit before asking the judge to dismiss the lawsuit “with prejudice.”
In response to Jones’s motion, ESPN reported that Davis’s lawyer, Andrew A. Bergman, denied the claim before challenging Jones to “put up any evidence that anyone demanded any money, period. It’s a shame that Jerry Jones wants to further damage his own daughter by now claiming she is extorting him. I challenge them to put up any evidence that supports either one of these defamatory and false claims.”
In a Jan. 5 letter obtained by ESPN, Bergman contacted Jones on Davis’s behalf to inform him of her willingness to determine if they are related, and extended the offer to participate if he was “willing to cooperate.” Bergman also told Jones that “he would proceed with legal action to force Jones to acknowledge he is the woman’s father,” per ESPN.
The paternity suit claims that Jones “pursued” Davis’s mother, Cynthia Davis Spencer, in 1995 while she was estranged from her husband, and the two began an illicit relationship leading to Davis’s birth. The suit also alleges Jones arranged a confidentially agreement with Spencer, paid Davis $375,000 “in exchange for confidentiality,” and set up trusts for both women to keep the paternity a secret.
“We challenge Mr. Jones to deny that he is the father and/or that he paid the money for the confidentiality agreement for Alex’s mother,” Bergman said Monday, per ESPN. “When [Cynthia] Davis was subpoenaed in an unrelated proceeding, Jerry’s lawyers told [Cynthia] Davis, Alex’s mother, that Jerry’s lawyer, Don Jacks, would be very mad and Jerry would probably terminate the trust.”
Jones declined to comment on the matter Monday from the NFL’s annual league meeting in Florida, calling it a “personal matter,” according to the Dallas Morning News.
As the case moves into its next steps, a hearing to determine whether the suit should remain sealed to the public is scheduled to take place on Thursday.
