Cheerleader Falls Man Carrying Her Drops Her Again
THE DALLAS COWBOYS paid a confidential settlement of $2.4 meg subsequently iv members of their iconic cheerleading squad defendant a senior squad executive of voyeurism in their locker room as they undressed during a 2015 consequence at AT&T Stadium, according to documents obtained by ESPN and people with knowledge of the situation.
Each of the women received $399,523.27 after the incident. I of the cheerleaders alleged that she clearly saw Richard Dalrymple, the Cowboys' longtime senior vice president for public relations and communications, continuing behind a partial wall in their locker room with his iPhone extended toward them while they were irresolute their wearing apparel, according to several people with knowledge of the events and letters later sent by attorneys for the cheerleaders to the team. Dalrymple gained entry to the dorsum door of the cheerleaders' locked dressing room by using a security key card.
Dalrymple also was accused past a lifelong Cowboys fan of taking "upskirt" photos of Charlotte Jones Anderson, a squad senior vice president and the girl of team owner Jerry Jones, in the Cowboys' war room during the 2015 NFL typhoon, according to documents obtained by ESPN and interviews. The fan signed an affidavit that he was watching a livestream of the war room on the team's website when he said he saw the alleged incident.
Dalrymple, who did not respond to interview requests by ESPN, told squad officials he entered the cheerleaders' locker room non knowing the women were there and left right abroad, a team source said. His account was contradicted by the way multiple sources described the alleged incident to ESPN. On Monday night, Dalrymple issued a argument calling both allegations false.
"People who know me, co-workers, the media and colleagues, know who I am and what I'm almost," Dalrymple said in his statement. "I understand the very serious nature of these claims and do not take them lightly. The accusations are, however, false. One was accidental and the other just did not happen. Everything that was alleged was thoroughly investigated years ago, and I cooperated fully."
A Cowboys representative said the team thoroughly investigated both alleged incidents and found no wrongdoing by Dalrymple and no evidence that he took photos or video of the women. The squad does not dispute that Dalrymple used his security fundamental card admission to enter the cheerleaders' locker room while the women were changing clothes.
"The organization took these allegations extremely seriously and moved immediately to thoroughly investigate this matter," said Jim Wilkinson, a communications consultant for the team. "The investigation was handled consistent with all-time legal and 60 minutes practices and the investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing."
All the same, the team issued Dalrymple a formal written warning in October 2015, a person familiar with the matter told ESPN. A team source declined to provide a copy of the warning or describe what it contained, citing privacy concerns. The team also declined to detail information, including fourth dimension-stamped information from surveillance cameras and security key cards, that would bear witness precisely when Dalrymple entered and left the dressing room.
"If any wrongdoing had been found, Rich would take been terminated immediately," Wilkinson said. "Anybody involved felt just terrible virtually this unfortunate incident."
Dalrymple continued working for the Cowboys, in his same role, for nearly vi years after the settlement. On Feb. 2, he told The Dallas Morning News of his immediate retirement after 32 years every bit Jerry Jones' chief spokesman and confidant. While Dalrymple thanked the team and the Jones family, no ane on behalf of the team acknowledged his years of service, and his retirement was non mentioned on the squad's website. His retirement came several weeks afterward ESPN began interviewing people about the alleged incidents and just days after ESPN contacted attorneys involved in the settlement. In his statement, Dalrymple said the allegations "had nothing to do with my retirement from a long and fulfilling career, and I was only contacted about this story subsequently I had retired."
A signed copy of the May 2016 settlement agreement obtained by ESPN includes a nondisclosure agreement in which the four women, three of their spouses and Cowboys officials agreed to never speak publicly virtually their allegations.
ESPN knows the identity of the 4 cheerleaders but does non typically reveal the names of people who take reported allegations of sexual misconduct. The women either declined to comment for this story or did not reply to inquiries.
A one-time cheerleader familiar with the dressing-room incident said it became known among a few boyfriend cheerleaders.
"It hurt my center because I know how much it affected the people who were involved," the former cheerleader said. "It was a very ... shut the book, don't talk about it, this person is going to stay in his position ... They simply fabricated it go abroad."
DALRYMPLE HAD A long personal history with the Cowboys and Jerry Jones and was seen by the owner as a member of the extended Jones family. In Dallas, he was the media gatekeeper and the team'southward high-profile fixer, frequently responsible for clarifying the owners' public statements. He was once ordered by receiver Dez Bryant in a crowded locker room to "set up this s---, Rich!" later Bryant got angry with a reporter. In 2015 and 2016, a team source said, Dalrymple lobbied football game writers to elect Jerry Jones to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
On Wed, Sept. 2, 2015, the Cowboys held their annual Kickoff Dejeuner at AT&T Stadium, the official start of the regular season that helps heighten coin for charity. Round banquet tables crowded the field nearly from cease zone to cease zone. Near ii,000 people attended, including the Jones family, Cowboys luminaries including Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin, and, as usual for special events, four Cowboys cheerleaders, clad in their unmistakable blue and white uniforms.
After waving their pompoms beside a lectern where several people delivered speeches, the cheerleaders returned to their locker room presently subsequently noon to quickly modify their clothes earlier attention the luncheon.
At least ii security guards usually stand up exterior the cheerleaders' dressing room when they are inside, sources told ESPN. But on this day, only one security baby-sit was present. Inside the dorsum door that was left unguarded was a small nook separated from the dressing room by a partial wall. The sources said the merely style to unlock the door is with a security key bill of fare that Dalrymple, among other employees, possessed.
The women heard the door leading to the nook area open up, sources said. "We're in here!" the women shouted. They assumed information technology was a security guard who immediately left, co-ordinate to an account from multiple sources and relayed in a letter from the cheerleaders' attorneys to the team.
Several minutes afterwards, ane of the cheerleaders noticed a human being'due south hand and a blackness cellphone pointed in their direction, according to several sources. At the time, the women were going "from fully clothed to completely unclothed," a cheerleader later told a Cowboys Hr official and the team's general counsel, Jason Cohen. The cheerleader who saw the cellphone was certain the human being was lurking and taking photos or video of them, according to multiple sources.
That adult female ran toward him, shouting, "Hey, what are y'all doing?" The cheerleader, a veteran of several years on the team, immediately recognized Dalrymple, who she said dashed away, according to the letter. The other women did not come across the homo, co-ordinate to the letter.
The cheerleaders immediately reported what had happened to a security guard. Iii people said the security guard wanted to study the incident to the Arlington police department. If the cheerleaders' allegations were substantiated, nether Texas law it could be a misdemeanor to secretly observe someone without their consent and a felony to have a photo or video of "an intimate area of another person" without their consent.
The sources said the cheerleaders wanted to have it "properly investigated," but the police were not called. The chaos delayed the iv cheerleaders' arrival to the tiffin past virtually 30 minutes. When they arrived, Kelli Finglass, the cheerleaders' director, was sitting at a circular table with other people, including several team sponsors, unaware of what had just transpired. "What took so long?" she asked the women, the former cheerleader said. The cheerleaders couldn't answer the question truthfully in that setting and instead simply said they had been delayed, sources said.
After the lunch, the cheerleaders huddled with Finglass, who suggested that the women should report the incident to the Cowboys' 60 minutes department, a source said. The source added that all 4 cheerleaders wanted Dalrymple punished.
Wilkinson said the Cowboys' investigation started later that day. Here'southward how he laid it out: Human resource officials took statements by telephone from the cheerleaders, the security guard and two other employees who might have been witnesses. Cohen, the full general counsel, confiscated Dalrymple'due south work-issued iPhone and obtained passwords for his phone and iCloud account. Cohen also conducted the offset of multiple interviews with Dalrymple, who acknowledged using his security key card to enter what he thought was an empty locker room. He also denied using his telephone to collect images of the women, Wilkinson said. During the security guard'southward interview, he did not tell team officials that he had wanted to call police. The security guard did not respond to multiple interview requests from ESPN. In the days that followed, Cohen sent Dalrymple a letter ordering him to preserve any bear witness related to the allegation, Wilkinson said.
It took 8 days after the incident for team officials to encounter with the women in person. The cheerleaders met individually with the chief of HR and Cohen in a conference room at Valley Ranch, then the team's headquarters, a source said. The source insisted that those meetings were the first fourth dimension team officials interviewed the women and that whatever discussions on Sept. 2 were "perfunctory." At those Valley Ranch meetings, squad officials told each of the women that they had interviewed Dalrymple, who insisted that he had entered their locked dressing room only to utilize the bathroom and did non expect to observe them there.
A source said the women were incredulous for two reasons: 1 cheerleader said she conspicuously saw Dalrymple with the cellphone sticking out from beyond a wall pointed at them. And the cheerleaders noted that there was a bathroom across the hall from their dressing room. In notes from one of the Hour meetings obtained by ESPN, Cohen told a cheerleader that the team had searched Dalrymple's iPhone and hired a forensics house to ensure no images had been deleted. A cheerleader asked Cohen whether the squad looked into whatever personal phones Dalrymple might have had. Cohen responded that Dalrymple insisted he had only the phone he turned over to the squad; a team source said Dalrymple told the team he did non own a personal phone.
"This to me is a grievous criminal offence," the woman said, according to the notes.
Cohen told the cheerleader that "[Dalrymple] understands he was this shut to beingness fired and nevertheless volition be fired if anything even remotely like this comes to calorie-free," according to the notes, and that Dalrymple did not deny being in the locker room. "At no point did he deny annihilation upward until the video part," Cohen said, according to the notes.
"Could he have lied to me? Of class," Cohen told the cheerleader, co-ordinate to the notes. "Just I said to him point blank, 'Is this the phone you had yesterday and he said 'yes.'"
The Hour chief, the notes said, told the woman the team "examined the phone thoroughly. ... There was no evidence of whatsoever videos, there was no evidence of anything that was sent out, no evidence of photographs."
Team officials repeatedly assured that they were taking the allegation seriously, according to the notes. "This is a huge bargain," the HR principal said, and later, "Nosotros care nigh you guys. We don't want you feeling awkward at work."
Hr also offered the woman resource, including "professional resources," according to the notes. And Cohen offered to connect the cheerleader with a friend who is an attorney, the notes said.
2 sources said the cheerleaders and their lawyers were non told whether images from security cameras, deployed all over AT&T Stadium, had been consulted or might have recorded any of the incident. I said the women were aroused because they felt that team officials seemed to take ended Dalrymple had washed nil wrong before the cheerleaders were formally interviewed eight days after the incident. "Information technology was a 'he said, she said' -- and the squad chose to believe Dalrymple's side of things," a source with knowledge of the allegations said nearly how the cheerleaders' felt. "Merely four women swore this happened."
The cheerleaders were instructed by their bosses not to go public and not to tell their teammates what had happened, multiple sources said.
Frustrated and angry, the women hired Due west. Kelly Puls, a Fort Worth attorney, afterward that calendar month to represent them in a possible lawsuit against the Cowboys, co-ordinate to sources. The cheerleaders "were upset and felt certain the team wasn't going to exercise annihilation virtually it," a source added. "They were told to simply go along cheering -- and saw Dalrymple ofttimes at games and events."
Puls sent certified messages to superlative Cowboys executives, including Jerry Jones, demanding that "all evidence be preserved," including all information on Dalrymple's cellphones, images from security cameras and records from Dalrymple's security key menu that would bear witness all the times he had gained access to the cheerleaders' locked dressing room, a source said.
At the same fourth dimension, the cheerleaders and their attorneys as well began searching for other testify of any alleged misconduct by Dalrymple. One of them discovered a curious postal service on a Facebook page by a Shreveport, Louisiana, schoolteacher and lifelong Cowboys fan named Randy Horton. He posted on a Boob tube station's page that he'd seen something foreign while watching a live video feed from the Cowboys' draft "war room" on April 30, 2015, as team officials celebrated their first-round option of Byron Jones, the University of Connecticut cornerback.
Horton as well wrote to Charlotte Jones directly on Facebook: "In case you haven't been made aware already, that guy Rich Dalrymple, who was sitting in the back corner of the war room last dark, on several occasions reached over and took upskirt pictures with his phone during the LIVE STREAM!! My married woman and I watched in amazement. Information technology happened when you guys stood upwardly jubilant when you learned that you would be able to choice the Jones kid. I believe Carolina was on the clock at the time. Go check information technology out!"
A team source said Charlotte Jones did not meet Horton'south post. "Charlotte is plain not sitting effectually reading Facebook," the source said.
Horton told ESPN that he saw Dalrymple hold his phone nether Charlotte Jones' brim and several times appear to snap photos.
"I'll never forget what I saw," Horton said. "The first fourth dimension he reached out from a sitting position behind her, and she is standing with her dorsum to him, and did it one time ... He looked at the screen, touched the screen and and so did it once more. The second time, he's sitting in a chair at the corner of the tabular array on the left and he held his phone beneath the corner of the table with the camera side facing upwardly where she was standing. And did it again.
"I have no dubiousness in my listen of what it was he was doing. It was obvious."
Horton said he tried and failed to capture the images on his laptop. He then posted a message about what he'd seen to the Facebook page for local TV station KSLA as "something one of your reporters might desire to await into."
I person replied to the Facebook post to the Tv set station, saying he'd also seen what Horton saw.
The cheerleaders' legal team found Horton's post and obtained a digital copy of the livestream. ESPN was non able to obtain a recording of the war room video. A team source declined to say whether they have it.
The Cowboys had been alerted to the "upskirt" allegation in May 2015 -- a few weeks subsequently it happened and four months earlier the cheerleaders' locker room allegation. A team source said a tipster told HR officials of the "upskirt allegation." The source said HR watched the video and found no wrongdoing past Dalrymple.
"The nigh basic mutual sense tells you that if Jerry Jones believed in any way that someone had fifty-fifty remotely done something like that to whatsoever fellow member of his family unit, that person would have been fired immediately," Wilkinson said.
Although the Cowboys had closed the books on the war room allegation, the cheerleaders' lawyers raised it in a Sept. 30, 2015, letter to Cowboys lawyers that was obtained by ESPN. The letter said attorneys planned to present evidence that the alleged state of war room incident showed Dalrymple'due south "vulgar propensities" that should have resulted in him losing access to the dressing room. In their letter, the attorneys questioned why Dalrymple used the cheerleaders' bathroom when "a men'south restroom was 20 anxiety away."
While the cheerleaders' lawyers were pursuing their investigation, Dalrymple hired a Dallas attorney, George Parker.
"I strongly advised him at the time that if he were fired for this incident, given the lack of evidence and no specific finding of wrongdoing, he would take grounds for a wrongful termination claim," Parker told ESPN via a statement issued by Wilkinson. Parker did non reply to ESPN's request for an interview.
The Cowboys issued the disciplinary letter to Dalrymple on October. xix, 2015, non long after he hired Parker. And the squad revoked Dalrymple's access to the cheerleaders' locker room, sources said.
The Cowboys also fabricated sweeping security changes around the cheerleaders' locker room, Wilkinson said. They reconfigured security central menu access to locker rooms for all staff and added cameras, new signs and new communications to warning security staff when locker rooms were in use. The source said they also ensured that cheerleaders were enlightened of HR and legal resources, employee help programs and an anonymous NFL hotline.
In the weeks afterwards the incident, the four cheerleaders were presented with a difficult choice past their lawyers: Go public with what had happened at a news conference or settle quietly with the squad and never speak well-nigh the incident. "Wasn't much of a choice," the one-time cheerleader said. "Neither option was skillful."
FOR MONTHS, In that location was an impasse between the two legal teams while the iv women connected cheering at games and other events.
In the spring, Horton was surprised to be contacted by an attorney for the cheerleaders who met with him in a Shreveport casino. On April eighteen, 2016, Horton swore to a 3-folio affidavit most the "upskirt" video. The cheerleaders' lawyer returned to Dallas with the affidavit, which he described to the Cowboys' legal team, sources said.
Within weeks, a settlement/nondisclosure agreement was fatigued up that spring the women and the team executives to secrecy. On May xvi, 2016, the agreement was signed by the four cheerleaders and their spouses and lawyers. The Jones family -- Jerry Jones, sons Stephen and Jerry Jr. and Charlotte Jones Anderson -- and Dalrymple signed shortly later on, denying whatsoever wrongdoing and that the alleged voyeurism even took identify.
"Instead, this Agreement is to be construed solely every bit a reflection of the Parties' desire to facilitate a resolution of a bona fide disputed claim and all other potential claims between the Parties through the engagement this Understanding is executed," the settlement states.
The agreement specifically bars the cheerleaders from disclosing any "attribute of the incident regarding Charlotte Jones Anderson," referring to the war room incident recounted by Horton.
A team source denied that Horton's affidavit spurred the $2.4 meg settlement.
ESPN confirmed that the team initially paid the cheerleaders, spouses and their lawyers a total of $1.8 meg in June 2016. Each of the cheerleaders was paid $249,523.37, with 3 police firms getting the residual -- a total of $801,906 in fees and expenses. Another $600,000 was paid by the Cowboys over the class of the side by side year, with iii cheerleaders getting $12,500 a month for a year and the fourth being paid $150,000 after her last season.
One of the only exceptions for the cheerleaders to remain silent is if they were forced "to respond to subpoena past federal, state or local regulatory authorities or governmental agencies." The agreement also gives strict instructions on how the cheerleaders and their spouses should respond if asked almost their voyeurism allegations: They "may only answer with 'No Comment.'"
ESPN attempted to contact more than than 100 former cheerleaders and other former team employees and most who did answer to inquiries declined to comment. Dozens did non respond to telephone, electronic mail and text messages.
There was a provision in the settlement agreement for ane of the cheerleaders to cheer that fall, and for another to piece of work elsewhere in the organization, according to the agreement. Two of the cheerleaders were eligible to stay on the team for the 2016-17 season only chose non to.
Director of cheerleaders Kelli Finglass did not respond questions from ESPN. In a statement released by Wilkinson, Finglass said, "This 2015 incident was taken seriously and immediately reported to Hour and legal, who launched a total and firsthand investigation. The arrangement farther strengthened the security protocols for the DCC."
Wilkinson said, "The cheerleaders are a vital part of the Dallas Cowboys family, and in terms of the settlement, the organization wanted to get in a higher place and beyond to ensure the cheerleaders knew that their allegations had been taken extremely seriously, and immediately and thoroughly investigated."
Like other professional person sports teams and American corporations, the Cowboys have a culture of often asking employees to sign nondisclosure agreements when hitting settlements with former employees -- and even current ones -- who allege workplace misconduct or wrongdoing. And equally a affair of routine when leaving the team, many erstwhile Cowboys employees accept signed NDAs, including the hundreds of women who take worked for them as cheerleaders. Asked whether the Cowboys would release the 4 cheerleaders and their spouses from the NDA they signed, a team source declined to comment. In addition, a team source declined to say whether Dalrymple asked the team's permission to break his NDA connected to the settlement understanding.
Six years later, the retentiveness of the incident has not been forgotten by the women impacted past what they say was a violation of their privacy by an influential team executive, a source said: "They are even so extremely upset. They saw it as a violation of their privacy that went unpunished."
The settlement remained confidential until five months ago, when ESPN received a tip from a sometime Cowboys executive well-nigh the allegations involving Dalrymple. Wilkinson called a reporter in Nov, offering to respond questions afterwards ESPN began calling dozens of people effectually the team.
ESPN sought interviews with Jerry Jones, forth with Stephen, Jerry Jr. and Charlotte, every bit well as Cohen. Through Wilkinson, they declined to comment. 2 attorneys for the cheerleaders who were listed on settlement documents, Carlos R. Cortez of Dallas and West. Kelly Puls too declined annotate for this story.
THE COWBOYS' ICONIC team of 36 cheerleaders are as much a symbol of America'due south Team as its starred helmets. More than 850 cheerleaders have worn the uniform. They've appeared in a pair of made-for-TV movies and a documentary, and they're always on the sidelines at Cowboys games and during team events at AT&T Stadium and in the community. They have their own popular reality Goggle box prove, "Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team," at present in its 16th season on CMT.
Revelations about the Cowboys come at a perilous time for the National Football League, on the heels of questions about workplace sexual harassment that emerged during the league's inquiry of the Washington Commanders.
In October, the leak of a handful of misogynistic, racist and anti-gay emails sent by sometime Las Vegas Raiders coach Jon Gruden to quondam Commanders president Bruce Allen got the attention of several members of Congress, who have demanded the NFL release all 650,000 emails gathered during the NFL inquiry into alleged wrongdoing by team leaders. More recently, The Washington Post reported that longtime team owner Dan Snyder had tried to thwart the investigation. Questions near the transparency of the enquiry into the Commanders -- and the NFL'due south responses to Congress -- have bedeviled commissioner Roger Goodell and other league and team executives all season.
Notably, critics have questioned why the league did not release a study by the exterior lawyer hired to investigate the Commanders. Documents released this month by the U.S. Firm Oversight and Reform Committee, which is investigating the Commanders and the NFL's handling of the inquiry, showed that the league may not be able to publicly release the findings of its investigation without Snyder's explicit permission. A 2d certificate showed the Commanders requested a "written investigation" from the law firm the squad hired to conduct the probe. Goodell had previously said the league couldn't release the internal investigation considering the police force firm presented its findings orally.
Jerry Jones, the league's most influential owner, was asked in November by HBO'southward Bob Costas whether Snyder had get "a liability" for the NFL, and he responded simply, "No." He insisted that he welcomes efforts past the commission, which has started to get together information by requesting documents and interviewing former Commanders employees near their allegations of sexual harassment and verbal abuse. "Certainly in every way does the NFL want to cooperate with annihilation Congress asks of it there," Jones said in the interview.
While saying he was satisfied with the NFL's inquiry, Jones also said he would welcome similar scrutiny of the Cowboys' front function and its practices. "As a matter of fact, on a personal ground, the more transparent, the more you're backside the scenes, the more yous're involved, to me, the more you enjoy the game," Jones said. "I think when we ask the country to be as interested in pro football equally you are, then you lot should expect those kinds of questions. And certainly, social issues are a huge part of our lives today."
Don Van Natta Jr. is a senior author for ESPN. Achieve him at Don.VanNatta@espn.com. On Twitter, his handle is @DVNJr. ESPN'southward Terrika Foster-Brasby, Maya A. Jones, Greg Amante and John Mastroberardino contributed to this report.
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Source: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/33231841/dallas-cowboys-paid-24-million-settle-cheerleaders-voyeurism-allegations
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