A 2020 lawsuit against Jerry Jones that had previously been dismissed has been given new life, and it’s likely to bring the Cowboys owner to trial to face troubling new accusations of sexual assault.
The case in question was first dismissed by a Dallas County district court in February 2022. But according to Lana Ferguson of the Dallas Morning News, a Texas appellate court has revived the case and ruled that it should proceed.
At the center of the case is an encounter that allegedly took place at AT&T Stadium on Sept. 16, 2018, the same date as a Cowboys’ 20-13 Week 2 win over the New York Giants in a Sunday night matchup. A woman claims Jones, who would have been 75 years old at the time, “kissed her on the mouth and forcibly grabbed her without her consent.”
Several prominent personalities well-known to Cowboys fans are named elsewhere as possible witnesses.
The Dallas Cowboys Football Club is also a defendant in the lawsuit, which claims the team “knew or should have known of Jones’s misconduct.” The National Football League was listed in the original lawsuit but is not named in the new appeal.
The lawsuit was dismissed last year after the judge claimed the woman- identified only as “Jane Doe” in the original case paperwork- failed to provide “fully identifying information” about herself and a more specific location for the incident. Those details, Jones’s legal team argued, were needed in order to make the lawsuit valid.
The state appellate court has found that the woman, in fact, “made a good faith effort to amend her pleadings” by providing that information upon request. They reversed the earlier dismissal, stating that the trial court “abused its discretion in dismissing” the claims.
In the revised complaint, the woman (whose identity is known to Jones’s attorneys) is now listed by the initials “J.G.” and the incident in question is described as having taken place inside the stadium’s Tom Landry Room, a luxurious suite where gameday meet-and-greet events are often held.
Per League of Justice‘s Amy Dash, J.G. accuses Jones of “sticking his tongue in her mouth and forcibly grabbing and groping her.” The suit claims the room was full of witnesses; J.G. believes those who were present include former head coach Jason Garrett, running back Ezekiel Elliott, offensive lineman Tyron Smith, and ex-defensive end Tyrone Crawford.
Current Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence and Jones’s wife Eugenia are allegedly listed as also being present in the room when the assault occurred.
The incident caused J.G. “severe injuries,” “emotional distress,” “psychological pain and suffering,” and medical expenses, according to the suit.
“Plaintiff has nightmares about what Jerry Jones did to her,” read the original complaint. “She has trouble focusing and completing day to day tasks at work and at home. Plaintiff gets nervous around men and has trouble being alone with men. Plaintiff cries often because of what Defendant Jerry Jones did to her and does not want any other woman to experience such assaults.”
J.G. is reportedly seeking monetary damages of over one million dollars and wants a jury trial to decide the matter.
“Jerry Jones has a sleazy history of allegedly sexually assaulting and assaulting females, and it appears that both the Cowboys and NFL have turned a blind eye to said illegal behavior over the years,” her original complaint continues.
A response from Jones called the allegations “malicious and hurtful.”
The Cowboys owner is currently in another legal battle, having been ordered to take a paternity test to determine if he is the biological father of a Texas woman named Alexandra Davis, who sued him last year.
The Davis case is ongoing.
The J.G. case could go to trial after all, now that last year’s dismissal has been reversed.
“We always knew we were going to win because the law was on our side,” said Thomas Daniel Bowers, the attorney for Jones’s latest accuser. “A victim’s finally going to get her day in court, and that’s very important.”
Bowers also represented Jana Weckerly, who accused Jones of sexual assault in 2009. Weckerly said Jones threatened her and tried to make hush-money payments to keep her quiet about that well-publicized incident, which included racy photos leaked on the internet. Jones’s attorneys called those allegations a “shakedown by a lawyer who is a solo practitioner just trying to make a name for himself.”
The Weckerly case was ultimately settled.
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