A Texas appeals court overturned the dismissal of a civil sexual harassment lawsuit against Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

DALLAS – Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones will now face trial in April as the Court of Appeal dismissed a woman’s claim that Jones raped her in 2018.

The original petition was filed on September 14, 2020 against Jones and the Cowboys by an anonymous woman using the pseudonym Jane Doe.

In the lawsuit, Doe alleges that Jones kissed her on the lips and forcibly grabbed her without consent on September 16, 2018, and that the Cowboys knew—or should have known—of his misconduct. She did not initially state where the incident took place, but a re-statement says it happened in Tom Landry’s room at AT&T Stadium.

The motion to dismiss was originally filed on February 1, 2022, when the judge dismissed Doe’s claims with prejudice.

The woman later re-submitted and amended her petition, and her attorney stated at the hearing that she would be willing to provide her full name and the necessary parts of her driver’s license and social security numbers that she had not provided on previous documents. documentation. The Court of First Instance rejected this request.

This was followed by the current successful appeal.

In this most recent appeal, lawyers argued that the earlier rulings were wrong because the courts dismissed her case after she made a good-faith attempt to change her claim, and because Jones’s lawyers never made specific exceptions to her live appearances.

The revocation wrote that the only real flaw in the pleadings pointed out by Jones’ attorneys in their motion to dismiss was that Doe did not identify herself in her pleadings.

“We recognize that the trial court has a wide margin of appreciation in deciding on special exceptions and in dismissing the case when the plaintiff does not remedy the shortcomings of the written pleadings,” the ruling says. “But since the appellant made a good-faith attempt to amend her pleadings in response to the court’s order for special exceptions, and no additional special exceptions were made, the trial court abused its discretion in dismissing the appellant’s claims.”

A jury trial has been scheduled for April 10.

The WFAA contacted attorneys for Jones and the Cowboys on Tuesday but did not immediately receive a response to our requests for comment.

Jones had previously denied the allegations, and in responses filed with the court, called them “malicious and harmful”.