Woman refiles defamation suit against Cowboys’ Jones

DALLAS — A woman who says Jerry Jones is her biological father refiled a defamation lawsuit this week alleging the Dallas Cowboys owner and his associates worked to portray her in the public as an “extortionist” seeking a multi-million dollar payout.

Alexandra Davis, a 26-year-old congressional aide, says Jones and his team of lawyers, media and marketing professionals concocted a plan to destroy her reputation by publicly attacking her as a “shake-down artist” motivated by greed and money.

Davis originally sued Jones in March 2022, seeking recognition as his biological daughter. In March of this year, she filed a defamation suit against Jones, accusing him of executing a “false and purposeful character assassination attack” against her.

This week’s lawsuit comes one month after a federal judge dismissed portions of the previous defamation suit but gave Davis the opportunity to refile. 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.

“Throughout their smear campaign against Plaintiff, Defendants either knew the statements being made by them were false or they knew enough facts such that they should have entertained serious doubts as to the truth of their defamatory statements,” the new lawsuit says.

Defendants “spoon-fed the defamatory narrative” to an ESPN reporter, who then “regurgitated the preconceived narrative throughout the country,” the lawsuit says. An ESPN story Tuesday noted that its previous coverage included comments from representatives of both Jones and Davis, including repeated statements from Davis’ attorneys denying the woman was trying to exploit Jones.

The lawsuit also says Jones and his associates attempted to link Davis to a conspiracy with others attempting to extort money from the Jones family,” including four Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. Jones paid the cheerleaders a $2.4 million secret settlement in 2016 after a senior team executive was accused of videotaping them undressing in their locker room. That settlement came to light in 2022.

In addition to Jones, the suit names Jones’ longtime friend and attorney Donald Jack, Jim Wilkinson, a communications consultant for the Jones family, Wilkinson’s public relations firm, TrailRunner International, and the Dallas Cowboys.

Reached by phone Thursday, Jack declined to comment. Jones and Wilkinson could not be reached for comment.

According to the lawsuit, a “defamatory narrative” has at times threatened Davis’ work. In December 2022, her employer received a message on Twitter, the suit says: “You may want to get rid of your congressional aid Alexandra Davis because extortion seems to be her thing.”

A Google search of “Alexandra Davis extortionist” generates more than 4 million hits, while “Alexandra Davis shakedown artist” results in more than 2 million, the lawsuit says. In the lawsuit, Davis says the case was never about the money, contrary to public statements made by defendants.

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 in which he would financially support the Davises if they never publicly identified him as her father.