Woman sues Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, claiming he is her father, court documents say

A 25-year-old congressional aide who grew up in North Texas is suing Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, claiming he is her biological father.

Lawyers for Alexandra Davis filed a lawsuit Thursday in Dallas County, saying Jones and her mother had a relationship in the mid-1990s from which she was conceived. According to court documents, Jones and Davis’ mother, Cynthia Davis, reached an agreement to financially support the mother and child unless they publicly identified Jones as her father.

Alexandra Davis is asking the court to recognize that she is not legally bound by the agreement between Jones and her mother if she tries to legally establish that he is her father. She doesn’t want to be sued or lose her financial funds. She is also seeking a court ruling that such settlement agreements should not be enforceable in Texas.

The trial was temporarily closed on Wednesday ahead of a March 31 hearing, court records show. The Dallas Morning News received the lawsuit through the county’s online court records system before the file was sealed.

Alexandra Davis and her lawyer could not be reached for comment by phone or email on Wednesday afternoon. Her mother declined to comment immediately.

Lawyers listed in court records as representing Jones could not be reached for comment by phone or email Wednesday afternoon. Jim Wilkinson, Jones’ personal representative, declined to comment.

As a young man, Jones made millions drilling oil wells and works as a real estate developer. The oil business prompted him to buy the Cowboys in 1989 for $140 million. The business is owned by the Jones family, his wife Jean and their three children. The Cowboys haven’t won a Super Bowl since 1996, but Forbes considers them the world’s most valuable sports franchise.

The lawsuit is filed after the Cowboys faced recent controversy over a 2016 court settlement involving four cheerleaders. It was revealed last month that the Cowboys paid $2.4 million to cheerleaders in response to allegations by four cheerleaders that franchise public relations chief Rich Dalrymple filmed them as they changed in the locker room. Jones said he takes the allegations seriously.

Cynthia and Alexandra Davis starred in the third and final season of Big Rich Texas, a reality show based in Dallas and Fort Worth that followed five wealthy women and their daughters. At the time, representatives of Cynthia Davis said she was living off a trust fund.

Allegations in the lawsuit

According to court documents, Cynthia Davis was married but separated from her husband when she met Jones. According to court documents, she worked as an American Airlines ticket agent at the Little Rock airport.

According to court documents, Jones “stalked” Cynthia Davis and the couple began a relationship. It’s unclear how long the relationship lasted.

Alexandra Davis was born on December 16, 1996, and Cynthia Davis and her husband filed for divorce soon after. During the divorce proceedings, it was established through genetic testing that Alexandra Davis was not the child of Cynthia Davis’ husband. He was not ordered to pay child support when the divorce was finalized and Alexandra Davis had no legal father, court documents say.

According to the lawsuit, after receiving the test results, Cynthia Davis told Jones that he was the biological father of Alexandra Davis. According to court documents, Jones told Cynthia Davis that he could not have children.

Jones and his wife married in 1963.

The lawsuit says that Jones and his lawyers negotiated an agreement with Cynthia Davis that would “trade money for silence.” According to the lawsuit, Jones asked his friend and lawyer Donald Jack to act on his behalf to help Cynthia Davis through her divorce proceedings.

Jack declined to comment Wednesday afternoon.

About $27,000 was used to help Cynthia Davis with her divorce, court documents say. She was given an additional $30,000 to continue negotiations “in good faith”. The lawsuit alleges that it is in Jones’ best interest that Cynthia Davis finalize the divorce before he is officially announced or identified as Alexandra Davis’ father.

Jones and Cynthia Davis worked out a “deal” that said Jones would financially support Cynthia and Alexandra Davis until they publicly disclosed that he was Alexandra Davis’ father, court documents say. Breach of the deal will result in the end of financial support, and either Jones or Jack will sue.

According to court documents, in the August 14, 1998 settlement, Jack was listed as the authorized agent of the “alleged father,” which was Jones. “Perceived father” is a man whose relationship to the child has not been established, but he is presumed to be the biological father of the child.

In the agreement, the “putative father” denied paternity.

In exchange for confidentiality, a lump sum of $375,000 will be paid to Cynthia Davis after the settlement is completed and Jones has established and funded two trusts for Alexandra Davis, court documents say.

Alexandra Davis was to receive “certain monthly, annual and special funding” from the trusts until she was 21, and annual lump sums when she was 24, 26 and 28. The trustee of the trusts was Jack, who the lawsuit alleges was to hide the identity of Jones.

The lawsuit stated that Jones had barred Alexandra Davis, who had a one-year-old child at the time of the settlement, from ever attempting to legally establish paternity.

Fear of losing support

Alexandra Davis has spent her entire life hiding her father’s identity, and that Jones’ only role in her life is to “avoid” her and “force her to ever reveal her identity,” the lawsuit says.

Alexandra Davis grew up in the Dallas area and graduated from Southern Methodist University, according to court documents. The Jones House is located several miles from campus. Jones was in contact with Cynthia Davis, but he and Alexandra Davis never met, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit says Alexandra Davis lived in fear of losing financial support from Jones if she told anyone who her father was. The lawsuit says the only time she revealed her father’s identity was when she needed to get an FBI clearance to work in the White House for President Donald Trump. According to her LinkedIn profile, she currently works for US Rep. Ronnie Jackson, an Amarillo Republican.

It is not clear why Alexandra Davis filed a lawsuit now. The lawsuit mentions her mother’s health problems.

Court documents say that Cynthia Davis was subpoenaed to testify in the divorce proceedings of Jones’ daughter, Charlotte Jones Anderson. The court documents in this case are also sealed.

Staff writers Emily Caldwell and David Moore contributed to this report.