A 26-year-old woman claiming to be Jerry Jones’ daughter refiled a defamation suit Tuesday against the Cowboys owner, his lawyer and a communications consultant, alleging they engaged in a “smear campaign” and worked closely with ESPN in its reporting of her claims.
The new complaint, according to ABC News, alleges the lawyer, Donald P. Jack, and the consultant, Jim Wilkinson, falsely accused Alexandra Davis “of being an extortionist.”
The suit also alleges that the defendants “were additionally working closely with” ESPN reporter Don Van Natta Jr., who has reported on Davis’ claims.
Davis, a legislative assistant for Rep. August Pfluger (Texas), first sued Jones in March 2022 seeking recognition as his daughter, with the suit claiming Jones reached a settlement with her mom, Cynthia Davis, when she was a 1-year-old that said he would financially support the mother and daughter as long as he wasn’t publicly identified as Davis’ dad.
She then filed a defamation suit in March 2023 alleging that Jones, Jack and Wilkinson tried to paint her as a “shakedown artist.”
That suit was tossed by a federal judge last month, but according to ABC News, the judge allowed Davis’ lawyers the chance to refile a suit based on comments from a March 31, 2022 ESPN story written by Van Natta Jr.
In that story, Davis’ lawyer, Andrew A. Bergman, said Davis isn’t seeking money from Jones, but Jack claimed otherwise based on a meeting he said the two parties had at a Dallas steakhouse “three or four years” before the initial lawsuit.
“In that meeting, Alex read to me a personal letter she had drafted to Jerry Jones in which she expressed her dissatisfaction with what she had received and sought $20 million,” Jack told ESPN in that March 2022 story. “She stated that if that amount was paid, she would not bother Mr. Jones again and would keep their relationship confidential.”
No proof of the letter was provided.
Wilkinson added in that ESPN report that the meeting “clearly demonstrates that money has always been the ultimate goal here” and claimed Bergman wanted “Zeke or Dak money” to make the suit go away.
Bergman is quoted in that same ESPN story as saying Wilkinson’s claim “is absolutely false.”
“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,” Davis’ new lawsuit says, per ABC News.
Jack claimed in that March 2022 ESPN story that Jones has paid Davis and her mother nearly $3 million.