Popcorn. Ready.
The recent paternity suit filed against Cowboys owner Jerry Jones by a 25-year-old congressional aide has sparked a claim by Jones that Alexandra Davis is involved in “multiple monetary extortion attempts.”
And the extortion attempts potentially involve, in the opinion of Jones, the ex-husband of Jones’s daughter, Charlotte Jones Anderson.
As to the paternity lawsuit, Don Van Natta of ESPN.com reports that Jones has accused Davis of delivering a draft of the complaint before filing it, asking whether he would like to “make a deal” that would keep the issue secret. Civil lawsuits often are preceded by efforts to settle the case that include providing a draft of the complaint; it’s not extortion to make that effort.
Things get more interesting with respect to a March 10 sent by Cowboys lawyers to Shy Anderson, Charlotte’s former spouse. The letter, via Van Natta, instructs Anderson to preserve documents that would potentially prove a conspiracy among himself and others, potentially including some of his lawyers. The letter mentions the Cowboys cheerleader voyeurism scandal, news of which emerged last month, and it asks Anderson to preserve all communications with Vincent Thompson, a former Cowboys executive.
In Van Natta’s latest article, he identifies Thompson as the person who provided the initial tip that led to the February 16 story exposing the cheerleader scandal. The incident happened six years after Thompson left the team, and Thompson insists he did not hear about the incident from Shy Anderson.
Andrew A. Bergman, a lawyer who represents Alexandra Davis, provided a statement to Van Natta.
“I would challenge Jerry Jones to put up any evidence that anyone demanded any money, period,” Bergman said. “It’s a shame that Jerry Jones wants to further damage his own daughter by now claiming she is extorting him. I challenge them to put up any evidence that supports either one of these defamatory and false claims.”
At the league meetings occurring this week in Florida, Jones declined to address the Davis lawsuit. He called it a “personal issue.”
It becomes something more than a personal issue if/when Jones claims that someone is extorting both him and the team. If, as Jones’s lawyers indicate, more litigation is coming, more details will emerge -- and more allegations will be made.
