The judge reached the decision following a hearing on February 19.
A Dallas County judge ruled on Wednesday that Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones must take a paternity test to verify whether he is the biological father of a 27-year-old woman who sued him in 2022, according to court documents acquired by The Dallas Morning News.
Judge Sandra Jackson’s judgment came after a roughly hour-long hearing on February 19 in which attorneys for Jones and the woman, Alexandra Davis, debated whether she had a putative father who is not Jones.
Davis’s attorney, Kris Hayes, described the ruling as a “huge victory” for her and other families.
“Alex is in a position where she really no longer has to hide her truth or live under the thumb of fear and maybe she’s going to finally get some peace and we hope other families will have that same benefit from the judge following the law,” Hayes said in a statement.
An counsel for Jones could not be reached Wednesday night.
Davis filed a lawsuit on March 3, 2022, alleging that she was conceived during Jones and her mother’s relationship in the mid-1990s. According to court filings, Jones and Davis’ mother, Cynthia Davis, reached an agreement under which Jones committed to financially support them as long as they did not publicly identify Jones as Alexandra Davis’ father.
The case aimed to have a court rule that Alexandra Davis was not bound by the agreement, but she eventually dropped the claim in favor of testing to confirm Jones is her father.
A judge earlier determined that Jones would be exposed to DNA testing in December 2022. His lawyers swiftly filed an appeal.
Jones’ attorneys, state Sen. Royce West, Levi McCathern, and Charles “Chip” Babcock, claimed at a hearing earlier this month that the man who was married to Davis’ mother when she was born was her assumed father.
Davis’ attorneys, Hayes and Andrew Bergman, said such was not the case, citing court documents from Arkansas that stated in “plain and obvious words” that Davis’ mother’s now ex-husband was not her father. Hayes explained that because Davis has no supposed father, Jones has just two alternatives for moving the case forward: acknowledge fatherhood or consent to take the paternity test.
Jones is also embroiled in another legal dispute with Davis in a US district court, having sued him for defamation in March. The lawsuit was partially dismissed in October and re-filed in November.
Earlier this month, the defense attorneys requested that the Court dismiss the complaint for the second time. No decision had been made as of Wednesday.
A jury trial is also approaching in Jones’ personal injury complaint, in which a woman claims he sexually assaulted her at AT&T Stadium in 2018. He has disputed the charges.
