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Jerry Jones paternity lawsuit dropped, but the case isn't over, attorneys say

Alexandra Davis, 25, requested that the paternity lawsuit be dismissed, and Judge Kristina Williams made a ruling dismissing the case on Wednesday.

DALLAS — The paternity lawsuit against Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has been dismissed, but that doesn't mean the case is over, according to attorneys for the woman who claims Jones is her father.

Alexandra Davis, 25, requested that the paternity lawsuit be dismissed, and Judge Kristina Williams made a ruling dismissing the case on Wednesday.

Davis' attorney, Andrew Bergman, said Davis is now filing a new lawsuit to establish parentage that would "compel Mr. Jones to submit to DNA testing in order to prove that Mr. Jones is her father."

A copy of the new lawsuit was not immediately available Thursday.

Jones' attorneys last month had requested to have the case dismissed, arguing the 192nd Judicial District court does not have jurisdiction over paternity issues.

Williams dismissed the lawsuit Wednesday without prejudice, which means it can be filed again at a later time.

Jones' attorneys had motioned to have the case dismissed with prejudice.

A hearing was scheduled in the case for Thursday morning, but the hearing was cancelled after the lawsuit dismissal.

Davis filed the lawsuit against Jones on March 3, alleging that Jones is her biological father, and that both she and her mother have been paid at least hundreds of thousands of dollars to conceal that secret, according to court records.

In their plea document asking to dismiss the case, Jones' lawyers, Levi G. McCathern and Charles L. Babcock, argued that Davis' claims were "submersed in hypothetical and contingent scenarios that are not justiciable because they have not occurred."

"This Court cannot assert jurisdiction over unripe claims and [Davis] cannot create it via her suit for declaratory relief," Jones' lawyers wrote in the filing. "Accordingly, this Court should dismiss [Davis'] claims with prejudice."

Jones' lawyers said Davis sent Jones a draft of her lawsuit before it was filed and "asked whether he would like to 'make a deal' to 'assure that he would not be publicly or privately identified and/or declared as [Davis'] father,'" the filing said.

Jones "declined to pay," according to his lawyers, and the lawsuit was then filed.

Jones' lawyers described Davis has having made "'let's make a deal' overtures." At the same time, Jones and the Cowboys were being made "the targets of multiple monetary extortion attempts," the filing said.

Jones' lawyers said the "potential source(s) of those attempted extortions" will be "the subject of other litigation which has been filed or will be instituted shortly," according to the court documents.

Their filing also denied all allegations made in Davis' initial lawsuit against Jones.

According to Davis' initial lawsuit, she asked to be recognized as Jones' daughter and released from the confidentiality agreement that her mother agreed to on her behalf and without her consent as a baby.

The lawsuit came amid a tumultuous offseason for Jones and the Cowboys.

In February, a report from ESPN revealed that the Cowboys paid a multimillion-dollar settlement to four team cheerleaders who accused the franchise's former public relations executive, Rich Dalrymple, of taking photos of them in their locker room in 2015.

The cheerleaders claimed that Dalrymple used his security key card to enter the unguarded rear door of their locker room in order to allegedly record on his cell phone the women getting undressed.

Dalrymple, the senior vice president of public relations and communications, retired from the Cowboys in February, shortly before the ESPN report was published.

The Cowboys are also dealing with cornerback Kelvin Joseph's involvement in an investigation into the killing of a 20-year-old man in Dallas. Last week, police revealed that Joseph was in a vehicle with two men who are accused in the fatal shooting.

Joseph interviewed with Dallas homicide detectives on April 15. Later that same day, the two suspects were arrested. Joseph has not been arrested and does not face charges at this time.

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