Breaking down lawsuits involving Cowboys owner Jerry Jones

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is dealing with more than questions about his football team.

He also is facing a civil lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault and a legal dispute with a 26-year-old woman who says the billionaire NFL owner is her biological father.

The sexual assault lawsuit, filed in 2020, was dismissed last year. But the suit was revived last week when a Texas appellate court reversed the trial court's decision to grant a motion to dismiss filed by Jones' attorneys.

The woman said Jones “kissed her on the mouth and forcibly grabbed her without her consent” in 2018 after a game at AT&T Stadium, which is where the Cowboys play their home games.

She also named Cowboys Football Club LTD as a defendant, stating in the lawsuit, "...Defendants had a duty to prevent the assault of Plaintiff. Instead Defendants knew of his problems with womanizing, yet he was still retained in a position of trust, confidence and authority as president in direct contact with females when it knew or should have known of his dangerous sexual propensities.''

Woman alleges Jerry Jones sexually assaulted her in 2018

The plaintiff in the sexual assault suit is a grandmother of five, said her attorney, Thomas D. Bowers III.

Bowers told USA TODAY Sports the woman does not want her age published, but he added, “She’s regular grandmother age.’’

The woman said the assault occurred Sept. 16, 2018 in the Tom Landry room, according to the lawsuit, and Bowers said the incident took place after the Cowboys beat the New York Giants 20-13.

“It’s an intimate affair that they have the players come in, coaches and owners, and they meet and greet with people who got special tickets,’’ Bowers said of the Tom Landry room. “My (client) was a guest of one of the players, so she was able to get special tickets.

“There are some pretty powerful players who were witnesses in the room. And the player that my client was invited by is a powerful player.’’

In the suit, the woman said she suffered “severe emotional distress,’’ “psychological pain and suffering” and incurred medical expenses.

Jerry Jones has faced sexual assault allegations before

In her initial filing in 2020, the plaintiff did not list her name or say where the assault occurred. The absence of such facts led Jones' attorneys to file a motion to dismiss, which a district judge granted even though the plaintiff included more information – such as her initials, J.G., and where the alleged incident occurred – in amended pleadings.

The appellate court's opinion read in part, "...the trial court abused its discretion in dismissing the appellant's claims.''

Bowers and Jones' attorneys have faced off before.

In 2014, Bowers represented another woman who sued Jones for sexual assault. Jana Weckerly, a former exotic dancer, then 27, accused Jones of grabbing her genitals and forcibly kissing her in 2009 and sought $1 million in damages.

The woman said Jones paid her hush money between 2009 and July 2013 to stop her from going to the police or suing, according to the lawsuit.

Jones denied the allegations, and a Dallas judge dismissed the case. The judge ruled that even if the allegations were true, they fell outside the five-year statute of limitations for civil sexual assault cases.

The alleged incident occurred on June 30, 2009, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in September 2014.

Bowers said he thinks the appellate court's ruling in the current lawsuit sets up the case for trial. But he also said Jones' attorneys could appeal to the state Supreme Court or file other motions to delay the case.

Paternity test in different case delayed

In March 2020, Alexandra Davis, then 25, filed a lawsuit saying Jones is her biological father and that he’d paid her mother Cynthia Spencer Davis more than $250,000 as part of a confidentiality agreement to keep secret that Jones fathered the woman.

ESPN reported one of Jones' attorneys said Jones paid nearly $3 million to Davis, including her full tuition at SMU and a $70,000 Range Rover on her 16th birthday. The lawyer, Don Jack, said he delivered the payments on behalf of the Dallas Cowboys owner.

According to the lawsuit, Jones and Davis' mother met in the mid-1990s when her mother was working for American Airlines in Little Rock, Arkansas, and was estranged from her husband.

Jones and his wife, Gene, married in 1963 and the couple has three grown children, all who have roles with the Cowboys.

In December, a Dallas judge ordered Jones to take a paternity test. The matter was delayed in January after the Texas Court of Appeals granted a temporary stay for one of Jones’ attorneys.

The attorney, Royce West, is a state senator who is at the Texas Legislative session, which began in January and is scheduled to end May 29.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jerry Jones' sexual assault, paternity cases are back. What we know