Judge dismisses defamation suit against Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones in federal court

The defamation lawsuit filed by a woman who says Jerry Jones is her biological father, alleging the Dallas Cowboys owner and his associates worked to portray her in the public as an “extortionist,” was dismissed by a judge Wednesday.

The lawsuit sought a multimillion dollar payout.

Alexandra Davis, a 27-year-old congressional aide, said in the lawsuit that Jones and his team of lawyers and media and marketing professionals concocted a plan to destroy her reputation by publicly attacking her as a “shakedown artist” motivated by greed and money.

Also listed as defendants in the lawsuit are Cowboys spokesman James Wilkinson; Wilkinson’s employer TrailRunner International; Jones’ friend and attorney Donald Jack Jr.; and the Cowboys.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert Schroeder wrote in Wednesday’s ruling that Davis had not “sufficiently pleaded that defendants acted with actual malice.”

“I am not at all surprised by the dismissal of the claims against Mr. Jones and his co-defendants,” Jones’ attorney Levi McCathern said in a statement to The Dallas Morning News. “These claims were false and had no merit from the very beginning. Unfortunately, one of the downsides of being a public figure is that you become a target for frivolous lawsuits by people whose sole purpose is to enrich themselves and their attorneys.”

The lawsuit was first filed in a U.S. district court in Texarkana in March 2023 but partially dismissed when the judge said some of the alleged defamatory statements about Davis were either true or “not defamatory.” He also ruled that Davis qualified as a “limited public figure,” which requires proof the defendants were acting with malice.

Davis’ attorneys refiled the amended version of the lawsuit in November.

“We are disappointed in the ruling and intend to appeal and believe we will be successful,” Davis’ attorneys Andrew Bergman and Jay Gray said in a statement to The News. “Of course this ruling has no impact on the paternity suit or Mr. Jones having to submit to genetic testing.”

Davis is also in the midst of a legal battle with Jones in Dallas County, where a judge ruled late last month that Jones would have to take a DNA test to prove whether he is Davis’ biological father and establish paternity.

Davis has said her mother, Cynthia Spencer Davis, had a romantic involvement with Jones in the mid-1990s.

She said her mother and Jones struck a deal when she was about a year old where he would financially support the Davises if they never publicly identified him as her father.

The defamation filing was made about a year after Davis sued Jones in a Dallas County court, alleging he was her father and sought to be released from the agreement her mother had made. Jones’ attorneys asked that the lawsuit be dismissed, calling it an “extortion attempt” despite the lawsuit not seeking monetary damages.

Separately, Jones is also facing a personal injury lawsuit filed in Dallas County by a woman who alleges he sexually assaulted her at AT&T Stadium in 2018. That lawsuit, initially filed in 2020 before being dismissed and revived, was set to go to a jury trial this month but was rescheduled to March 3.