Kathryn Mayorga claims she was raped by Manchester United superstar Cristiano Ronaldo at a hotel in Las Vegas back in 2009.
A US judge has dismissed a rape lawsuit against Ronaldo because Mayorga’s lawyer founded his allegations on leaked and stolen records. Ronaldo has never been charged. He has always denied the accusations made by Mayorga.
The woman had reached a settlement with Ronaldo’s legal team in 2010 and was paid $375k, but she returned a decade later asking for almost $80 million. She motivates claiming that she agreed to the previous settlement because she felt under pressure, insisting that the emotional trauma did not allow her to be involved directly in the mediation process.
Ronaldo’s version: everything was consensual
Mayorga’s lawyer, Leslie Stovall, received information and documents that were confidential and privileged, US District Judge Jennifer Dorsey said. The judge believes Ronaldo was harmed by the use of stolen and privileged documents related to the case. Dorsey’s 42-page ruling accused Stovall of “abuses and flagrant circumvention of the proper litigation process”. As a consequence, “Mayorga loses her opportunity to pursue this case”.
In 2021, a magistrate judge invoked Stovall’s conduct as the reason for recommending that the case should be dismissed.
Back in 2019, US prosecutors said Ronaldo could not face charges over Mayorga’s accusations as they could not “be proven beyond reasonable doubt”. The Clark County District Attorney’s office in Las Vegas said Mayorga reported an assault in 2009, but she refused to state where it took place and who the attacker was. The police were unable to conduct a thorough investigation as a consequence. Mayorga’s complaint saw the case re-opened in 2018, months after German magazine Der Spiegel wrote that the woman agreed in 2010 to never go public with her allegations. Mayorga’s lawyer claimed she had been inspired to re-open the case by the #MeToo movement.
Ronaldo never denied meeting Mayorga, who was working as a model at the time, in 2009. The five-time ‘Ballon d’Or’ winner assured that what happened between them was consensual.