ESPN article details claims that Dallas Cowboys paid $2.4 million to settle cheerleaders’ ‘voyeurism’ allegations against Rich Dalrymple

An unsettling article about the Cowboys, longtime senior vice president for public relations and communications Rich Dalrymple, and the cheerleaders was published on Wednesday.

ESPN has published an article that details very unsettling claims about the Dallas Cowboys — and specifically about recently retired PR executive, Rich Dalrymple. Early February of this year, Dalrymple abruptly retired and there was a very muted response around media owned by the Dallas Cowboys, despite Dalrymple having been with the Cowboys for 32 years and being extremely close with the Jones family.

The ESPN article, that was written by senior writer Don Van Natta Jr. and published on Wednesday, details an incident that allegedly occurred in 2015 where Dalrymple was accused of videoing four cheerleaders on his phone in various stages of undress while standing behind a partial wall in their locker room without their knowledge. The Cowboys claim the incident was fully investigated and that they could not conclude that Dalrymple had done what he had been accused of by the cheerleaders. The Cowboys eventually settled with the cheerleaders monetarily and everyone was sworn to not discuss it afterwards.

ESPN reported that the Cowboys paid a confidential settlement of $2.4 million to the four cheerleaders, and that each of the women received $399,523.27. Dalrymple continued working for the Cowboys in his same role for nearly six years after the settlement, the article states.

The article has full details of the story, including quotes from Dalrymple, who denies the incident happened as described, and Cowboys personnel who investigated the incident. There are also statements from the cheerleaders’ side of the incident, but they are not publicly named because of the sexual nature of the alleged incident, even though ESPN knows their identities.

It is noted that the Cowboys issued a warning to Dalrymple after the incident, but no other action was taken against him. There are statements from the cheerleaders indicating they didn’t think the Cowboys did enough around the incident but they had no evidence other than their word that the incident happened.

There is also another alleged incident that was brought up in the article about Dalrymple, alleging that he took an “upskirt photo” of Charlotte Jones in the Cowboys’ war room during the 2015 NFL draft. That was not part of the initial incident but came up when the cheerleaders hired an attorney to talk to the Cowboys.

Besides a Cowboys official who spoke about the investigation and the statement from Dalrymple, a long list of people contacted by ESPN would not comment, including the Jones family.