Ronaldo’s Rape Lawsuit Has Just Been Dismissed

Cristiano Ronaldo was alleged to have sexually assaulted a woman in Las Vegas in 2009. The woman who is engaged with this case has lost her bid in a U.S. court to drive Cristiano Ronaldo to pay a huge number of dollars more than the $375,000 settlement she got in the wake of alleging he assaulted her.

During the court proceedings, the U.S. Area Judge Jennifer Dorsey in Las Vegas dismissed the case from court on Friday June 10, to rebuff the woman’s lawyer, Leslie Mark Stovall, for “bad faith conduct” and the utilization of “purloined” private documents that the appointed authority said polluted the case beyond recovery.

Dorsey said in her 42-page order that dismissing a case outright with no option to file it again is a severe sanction, but she said Ronaldo had been harmed by Stovall’s conduct.

“I find that the procurement and continued use of these documents was bad faith, and simply disqualifying Stovall will not cure the prejudice to Ronaldo because the misappropriated documents and their confidential contents have been woven into the very fabric of [plaintiff Kathryn] Mayorga’s claims,” the ruling said. “Harsh sanctions are merited.”

Stovall didn’t quickly answer Saturday to phone and email messages. Instant messages to relate Larissa Drohobyczer were not replied. They could pursue the choice to the ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

In a statement referring to Mayorga only as “plaintiff,” Ronaldo’s attorney in Las Vegas, Peter Christiansen, said Cristiano’s legal team welcomed the decision.

“We have maintained the action was brought in bad faith,” the statement said. “The outright dismissal of plaintiff’s case should give all who follow this matter renewed confidence in the judicial process in this country while dissuading those who seek to undermine it.”

The Associated Press for the most part doesn’t name individuals who say they are survivors of rape, but Mayorga gave consent through Stovall and Drohobyczer to unveil her name.

Dorsey had flagged recently that she was prepared to end the case after Stovall failed to fulfill a procedural time constraint in his bid for more than $25 million in damages in light of charges that Ronaldo or his partners disregarded a 2010 confidentiality agreement by letting reports about it show up in European publications in 2017.

Mayorga’s lawsuit – – filed in 2018 in state court and moved in 2019 to government court – – alleged that Ronaldo or his associates violated the confidentiality agreement before the German news outlet Der Spiegel published an article titled “Cristiano Ronaldo’s Secret” based on documents obtained from “whistleblower portal Football Leaks.”

Ronaldo’s legal team does not dispute Ronaldo met Mayorga and they had sex in June 2009, but it maintained it was consensual and not rape.

Mayorga went to Las Vegas police at the time, but the investigation was dropped because Mayorga neither identified her alleged attacker by name nor said where the incident took place, police and prosecutors said.

Las Vegas police reopened their rape investigation after Mayorga’s lawsuit was filed, but Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson decided in 2019 not to pursue criminal charges.

Wolfson, the elected public prosecutor in Las Vegas, said too much time had passed and evidence failed to show that Mayorga’s accusation could be proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.

Stovall maintained that Mayorga didn’t break the settlement to quiet her. Her lawsuit sought to void it, accusing Ronaldo and reputation-protection “fixers” of conspiracy, defamation, breach of contract, coercion and fraud. In documents filed last year, Stovall tallied damages at $25 million plus attorney fees.

Several People Were Sexually Abused But Now, The University Wants To Pay Them

The attorney argued that Mayorga had learning disabilities as a child and was so pressured by Ronaldo’s attorneys and representatives that she was in no condition to consent to dropping her criminal complaint and accepting the $375,000 settlement in August 2010.

Dorsey followed recommendations from U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Albregts, who handled preliminary and procedural rulings in the case, that it be dismissed for bad faith, “inappropriate conduct” by Stovall and reliance on the leaked and stolen confidential documents.

“There is no possible way for this case to proceed where the court cannot tell what arguments and testimony are based on these privileged documents,” Albregts said in an October 2021 report to Dorsey.

Stovall “acted in bad faith by asking for, receiving, and using the Football Leaks documents to prosecute Mayorga’s case,” Albregts wrote.

He blamed Stovall for “audacious,” “impertinent” and “abusive” attempts to make the confidentiality agreement public through legal maneuvers and the court record and recommended to Dorsey that she reject Stovall’s claim that Mayorga lacked the mental capacity to sign the 2010 agreement.

It was not immediately clear in Dorsey’s ruling whether the public might still get a look at the Las Vegas police report compiled about Ronaldo after Mayorga filed her lawsuit in 2018.

A protective order that Dorsey imposed to prevent the release of the 2010 agreement doesn’t apply to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Albregts found, and “does not bar LVMPD from disseminating its criminal investigative file.”

Attorney Margaret McLetchie, representing the newspaper, did not immediately respond Saturday to a message about that case.