DALLAS — A Texas court of appeals has delayed Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones' paternity proceedings, overturning a previous denial for the delay in a Dallas County district court.
Jones' lawyer, Royce West, filed the lawsuit due to a hearing for genetic testing, which was set to have taken place Jan. 24, being scheduled in the midst of the Texas Legislative Session. The Democrat is a longtime state senator representing District 23 at the state level, which covers a portion of Dallas County.
West had initially filed this motion in the 302nd Judicial District Court, where the hearing is scheduled to take place, but the motion was denied. In response, West filed a writ of mandamus in the Court of Appeals for the Fifth District of Texas, effectively suing 302nd District Court Judge Sandra Jackson to overturn her denial.
The appeals court granted the motion a day before the hearing was scheduled.
A lawsuit had previously been filed against Jones by Alexandra Davis, 25, who claimed that the Cowboys owner is her father. That original lawsuit had been filed in March but was later dismissed – only to be filed again shortly after.
Davis' attorney, Andrew Bergman, said Davis was 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."
Jones' attorneys had requested to have the case dismissed, arguing that the 192nd Judicial District court does not have jurisdiction over paternity issues.
Davis filed her original 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.
The delayed motion has not yet been rescheduled to another date at this time.
