The civil complaint for rape against Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo filed by a former American model in the United States has been dismissed by an American judge, according to the court decision consulted on Saturday by AFP.
A Nevada court judge dismissed the case on Friday over alleged wrongdoing against plaintiff attorney Kathryn Mayorga, who accused the soccer star of raping her in 2009 at a Las Vegas hotel.
American justice had decided in 2019 not to prosecute Ronaldo in criminal proceedings, for lack of evidence.
In civil matters, a judge had recommended in October to close the complaint of Kathryn Mayorga, now 37, considering that it was partly based on pirated documents from “Football leaks” which should not have been find in his possession.
“Bad faith”
In his recommendations, he accused the young woman’s lawyer, Leslie Stovall, of having acted with “bad faith” in this case.
The Nevada federal court followed these recommendations, finding that this “bad faith” had “persisted”.
“Stovall’s repeated reliance on stolen and confidential documents to support the charges bears all the hallmarks of bad faith,” he wrote in his decision.
If he says he “recognizes” his “severity” for the complainant, the court considers that this “ill-gotten information” has “impregnated” the complaint and the accusations to such an extent, “and probably the memories and perceptions of the key events ” at the former model, that any other decision would have been “inadequate”.
The striker, who currently plays for English club Manchester United, has always strongly denied these rape accusations, claiming to have had a “completely consensual” relationship with the young woman.
In June 2009, the plaintiff had certainly called the police of Las Vegas to denounce a rape but she had refused to identify her attacker. The file was then closed.
A “private mediation” was organized shortly after with representatives of Ronaldo, resulting in a financial transaction in 2010: 375,000 dollars in exchange for absolute confidentiality on the alleged facts or the agreement, as well as the abandonment of any procedure.
For Mrs. Mayorga’s current lawyers, this agreement is null and void, in particular because of the psychological disorder of their client at the time and the pressure exerted against her. They claimed the fivefold Golden Ball up to 200 million dollars in compensation.
It was in August 2018 that the complainant contacted the Las Vegas police again and asked for her case to be reopened, publicly accusing the footballer for the first time.
The Portugal captain later claimed that 2018 had been his “most difficult year on a personal level” as his “honour” had been “challenged”.