Jerry Jones Lawsuits: Sexual Assault, Paternity, NFL Fight

Jerry Jones lawsuits span decades and categories, but three matter most for anyone searching his name today: a civil sexual assault case set for a Dallas County jury trial on July 20, 2026; a paternity dispute with Alexandra Davis that ended in a July 2024 settlement leaving a 1998 confidentiality agreement intact; and a 1990s licensing fight with the NFL that reshaped how league teams sell sponsorships. Jones has also testified as a witness in the Sunday Ticket antitrust case, though he is not a defendant there.

The 2026 Sexual Assault Trial

A woman identified in court papers as J.G. sued Jones and the Dallas Cowboys Football Club in Dallas County in September 2020. She alleges that on September 16, 2018, during a home game against the New York Giants, Jones kissed her on the mouth and forcibly grabbed her without consent in the Tom Landry Room at AT&T Stadium.¹ Her complaint claims severe emotional distress, psychological suffering, and medical expenses, and alleges that Cowboys officials knew or should have known about Jones’s conduct.²

Jones denies the allegations. His legal team has called the suit “frivolous.”³

The case reached its current posture the hard way. A district court judge dismissed it in February 2022 over a discovery order dispute. In February 2023, the Texas Court of Appeals for the Fifth District reversed, with Justice Amanda L. Reichek writing that the plaintiff had “made a good faith attempt to amend her pleadings” and that the trial court had “abused its discretion.”⁴ The Supreme Court of Texas declined to intervene in September 2023.⁵

On October 2, 2025, Dallas County District Judge Aiesha Redmond denied Jones’s motion for summary judgment, the last major procedural hurdle before trial.³ Jury selection is scheduled for July 20, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. The case could still settle or face further delays before that date.⁶

An Earlier, Dismissed Claim

The J.G. case is not the first allegation of its kind against Jones. In September 2014, Jana Weckerly sued Jones over an alleged incident on June 30, 2009, seeking more than $1 million and claiming Jones had paid her to stay silent between 2009 and 2013. Jones denied the allegations. A Dallas judge dismissed the suit, ruling the claims fell outside the five-year Texas statute of limitations for civil sexual assault cases.⁷

The Alexandra Davis Paternity Case

Alexandra Davis was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on December 16, 1996. Her mother, Cynthia Davis Spencer, had met Jones while working as an American Airlines agent in Little Rock. Spencer was married but estranged at the time, and a paternity test during her subsequent divorce confirmed her ex-husband was not the father. When Spencer told Jones he was the father, he reportedly said he was “not able to have children.”⁸

In 1998, Jones and Spencer signed a confidentiality and financial settlement. Jones paid Spencer a $375,000 lump sum, and his longtime associate, Arkansas lawyer Don Jack, set up two trust funds for mother and daughter. The trusts provided monthly and annual funding until Alexandra turned 21, with additional lump-sum payments at ages 24, 26, and 28. In return, Spencer and her daughter agreed not to publicly identify Jones as the father or sue to establish paternity. Jones denied biological paternity in the agreement itself.⁹¹⁰

In March 2022, Alexandra Davis sued in Dallas County to be legally recognized as Jones’s daughter and to void the 1998 agreement she had been bound by since infancy.¹¹ Jones’s attorneys called the suit an “extortion” attempt in court filings, alleging Davis had offered to “make a deal” before filing.¹² Davis then filed a separate defamation claim over that “extortionist” label, which a federal judge dismissed in March 2024 for failure to show malice.⁹

Jones countersued in federal court in May 2023, alleging that Alexandra and Cynthia Davis had breached the 1998 agreement by filing their lawsuits. He sought a declaratory judgment that the agreement remained binding and more than $1.6 million in attorneys’ fees.¹³ The breach-of-contract trial opened in U.S. Federal Court in Texarkana in July 2024 and lasted barely a day and a half. Don Jack testified that Jones’s financial support to the Davises had totaled roughly $3.2 million and that the family’s demands had eventually escalated to $20 million.¹⁴

On July 23, 2024, after Jones and the Davises met privately over lunch at the courthouse, both sides agreed to drop all pending claims with prejudice. None of the suits can be refiled. The 1998 agreement remains in effect, Jones is not required to take a DNA test despite a Dallas County judge having ordered one earlier that year, and no new financial settlement was reached beyond the existing contract.¹⁴¹⁵ Jones’s attorney Charles Babcock told reporters that Jack’s testimony “was so compelling that I think the parties realized that maybe they didn’t have much to fight about.” Jones himself said only: “I regret that it came to this, and I’m glad that it is resolved to everyone’s satisfaction.”

Jones vs. the NFL, 1995–1996

Jones’s willingness to litigate against the league itself is older than any of his personal cases. In the mid-1990s, he signed independent sponsorship deals with Pepsi, Nike, Dr Pepper, American Express, and AT&T through his Texas Stadium Corporation, sidestepping the NFL’s centralized marketing arm. The league viewed those deals as violations of a 1982 trust agreement giving the NFL exclusive rights to negotiate commercial uses of team names, helmets, uniforms, and slogans.¹⁶

In September 1995, the NFL sued Jones for $300 million. Jones countersued for $750 million in federal court in New York, accusing the league of preventing teams from doing their own marketing.¹⁷ The parties settled on December 13, 1996. The financial terms were not disclosed, but Jones kept his Texas Stadium sponsorships and gained the right to sign new ones without sharing that revenue with the league. Every other franchise gained the same latitude. Jim Andrews of the IEG Sponsorship Report said the settlement effectively let any club sign independent marketing agreements.¹⁶

Sunday Ticket: Jones as Witness

Jones is not a defendant in the Sunday Ticket antitrust litigation, but he played a visible role. The class action, brought on behalf of about 2.4 million residential subscribers and 48,000 businesses, alleged that the NFL and its 32 teams conspired to inflate the price of the out-of-market game package by restricting it to a single provider.¹⁸

In June 2024, a Los Angeles jury found the league had violated federal antitrust law and awarded $4.7 billion to residential subscribers and $96 million to commercial plaintiffs. With trebling under federal antitrust law, potential liability exceeded $14 billion, or roughly $450 million per team.¹⁸

Jones testified over two days. Asked whether teams should be able to sell their own out-of-market TV rights, he said no, arguing it “would undermine the free TV model we have now.” Plaintiffs’ lawyers pressed him with his own 1995 filing against the league, in which he had called the NFL’s centralized control a “classic price-fixing cartel.” On redirect, NFL counsel pointed to another paragraph of that same filing noting that the “overwhelming bulk” of club revenue came from shared TV rights, which the 1990s case had not challenged.¹⁹

Trial judge Philip Gutierrez later vacated the jury’s verdict, citing concerns about the expert testimony used to prove financial harm. The case is now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, where plaintiffs are asking for the verdict to be reinstated or for a new trial on damages.²⁰

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Fox 4 News. Jerry Jones Sex Assault Trial
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Yahoo Sports. Sexual Assault Lawsuit Against Jerry Jones Revived After Appeal
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WFAA. Jerry Jones Sexual Assault Lawsuit Trial Next Year
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Bloomberg Law. Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones to Face Suit Over Alleged Sex Assault
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Post Guam. Court Denies Jerry Jones’ Latest Appeal
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NBC Sports. Ruling Keeps Sexual Assault Case Against Jerry Jones on Track for July 2026 Trial
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USA Today. Jerry Jones Sexual Assault, Paternity Cases: What We Know
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Arkansas Times. Woman Sues to Establish Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones Is Her Father
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CBS News Texas. Dallas Cowboys Jerry Jones Paternity Case Resolution
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WAFB. Judge Orders Paternity Test for Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones
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ABC News. Woman Sues Jerry Jones, Alleges Dallas Cowboys Owner Is Her Father
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CNN. Jerry Jones Dallas Cowboys Paternity Lawsuit
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Courthouse News Service. Dallas Cowboys Owner Heads to Trial Seeking $1.6M in Paternity Dispute
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NBC DFW. Jerry Jones Countersuit Ends
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KERA News. Jerry Jones Dallas Cowboys Alexandra Davis Paternity Test
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The Oklahoman. Dallas, Jones, NFL Settle Suit
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Forbes. Jerry Jones’ 1995 Risk Allows the Dallas Cowboys to Become Leaders in the Growing Women’s Sports Apparel Market
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NFL. NFL Disappointed After Jury Orders League to Pay Nearly $4.8 Billion in Sunday Ticket Antitrust Case
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NBC DFW. NFL Sunday Ticket Lawsuit Jerry Jones
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NBC Sports. Sunday Ticket Case