Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo is being sued by a woman who says that he sexually assaulted her in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2009.
A lawyer for Kathryn Mayorga has filed a complaint in Clark County District Court against Ronaldo, and Las Vegas police have confirmed that they have reopened the case into the incident, which took place on June 13, 2009.
Incident Allegedly Occurred After Nightclub Meeting
Police have also confirmed that they did respond to a sexual assault call on that date, but that the victim did not provide detectives with details of the incident or a description of the suspect at that time.
According to Mayorga’s lawsuit, the incident occurred after she met Ronaldo while working at the Rain nightclub at the Palms Hotel. She, along with a group of other people, were invited by Ronaldo to go back to his penthouse suite.
When several guests planned to use the hot tub, Mayorga says that Ronaldo gave her clothing to wear as she did not have a swimsuit. As she was changing in the bathroom, she alleges that Ronaldo exposed himself and asked her to perform oral sex. She alleges that after refusing, she attempted to leave, but the Ronaldo pulled her onto a bed and forced her to have anal sex.
“After he assaulted me, he wouldn’t let me leave again,” Mayorga told German magazine Der Spielgel. “He wouldn’t let me leave.”
Der Spiegel reported that Mayorga reached a $375,000 settlement with Ronaldo in 2010 in exchange for not making the allegations public. However, her lawyers are now seeking to void the nondisclosure agreement, and say that Ronaldo’s representatives were attempting to obstruct a criminal investigation and prevent Mayorga from claiming civil damages.
Ronaldo Calls Story ‘Fake News’
Lawyers for Ronaldo aggressively pushed back against the Der Spiegel report, saying that publishing the accusations was “blatantly illegal.”
“[The story] violates the personal rights of our client Cristiano Ronaldo in an exceptionally serious way,” lawyer Christian Schertz said in a statement. “We have been instructed to immediately assert all existing claims under press law against [Der Spiegel], in particular compensation for moral damages in an amount corresponding to the gravity of the infringement, which is probably one of the most serious violations of personal rights in recent years.”
Ronaldo has dismissed the claims as “fake news.” However, Mayorga’s lawyer rejected that claim.
“Ms. Mayorga’s filed complaint, the physical evidence of her sexual assault, answers to written questions regarding the sexual assault attributed to Cristiano Ronaldo, the communications and conduct of the ‘team’ representing Cristiano Ronaldo, the circumstances surrounding the purported agreement for settlement and nondisclosure, and the psychological injuries suffered by Ms. Mayorga are not ‘fake news,'” wrote lawyer Leslie Mark Stovall.
The 33-year-old Ronaldo currently plays for Italian club Juventus following a €100 million transfer from Real Madrid this summer. According to William Hill, Juventus is an overwhelming 1/6 favorite to win the Serie A championship, and a 13/2 pick to win the Champions League this season, behind only Barcelona (5/1) and Manchester City (11/2).