The federal civil case alleging that the Portuguese soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo raped a woman in 2009 in a hotel room in Las Vegas was filed last Friday (10).
Judge Jennifer Dorsey heeded a federal magistrate’s recommendation, saying that attorney for accuser Kathryn Mayorga had engaged in misconduct so severe that it would have been impossible for Ronaldo to have a fair trial.
“Because of her attorney’s abuse and blatant evasion of the proper litigation process, Mayorga misses the opportunity to pursue this case,” Dorsey decided.
The case was dismissed with final judgment, meaning Mayorga can no longer appeal the decision.
Mayorga alleges she was coerced into signing a non-disclosure agreement after the alleged rape, which Ronaldo claimed was a consensual sexual encounter. She was paid $375,000 to keep silent.
Mayorga asked the judge to annul that agreement.
The existence of the agreement was first reported in 2017 by the German newspaper Der Spiegel, which leaked confidential conversations between Ronaldo’s lawyers.
For the decision, the court considers that one of Mayorga’s lawyers, Leslie Stovall, directly sought the source of this leak to have access to the documents, including “the reports and communications of the lawyers and investigators representing and defending Ronaldo after the sexual attack through the negotiations and signature of non-disclosure”.
“The repeated use of stolen and privileged documents by Stovall for the process has all the indications of bad faith conduct”, wrote the magistrate.
Dorsey considered that “the diverted documents and their confidential content were woven into Mayorga’s own claim”, stating that simply withdrawing the content of the case and disqualifying Stovall as a lawyer would not be enough to recover the damage caused to Ronaldo.
THE CNN reached out to Stovall for comment on the decision, but has yet to hear back.
Ronaldo’s lawyer, Peter Christiansen, said in an email sent to CNN this Saturday (11), that “since the plaintiff first filed the suit in 2018, the defense has maintained that the action was filed in bad faith.” “The complete shelving of the case should renew the confidence of all those who accompany this process in justice, while deterring those who seek to harm it.”
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department reopened a criminal investigation at Mayorga’s request in August 2018. In July 2019, the Clark County District Attorney’s Office announced that it would not pursue criminal charges, saying the allegations could not be proven beyond any reasonable doubt.
Source: CNN Brasil
