A Nevada woman has lost her bid, through a US court, to force Manchester United and Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo to pay millions of dollars in addition to the $375,000 she paid for silence after she alleges he raped her in Las Vegas in 2009.
US District Judge Jennifer Dorsey in Las Vegas dismissed the case late Friday to punish the woman’s lawyer, Leslie Mark Stovall, for “bad faith behavior” and the use of “unknown” classified documents.
So far, today, Saturday, lawyers for both sides did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s legal team does not doubt that the two had sex together, but they assert that the matter was consensual and that a confidentiality agreement prevents both sides from talking about the incident.
Last October, an American federal judge sided with Ronaldo’s lawyer against this woman.
In a harsh recommendation for the judge hearing the case, Justice of the Peace Daniel Albrights blamed Attorney Stovall for basing the case on leaked and stolen documents.
In his recommendation to Dorsey, Albrights wrote: “The dismissal of [model Catherine] Mayorga’s case due to the inappropriate conduct of her attorney is a cruel outcome…but it is, unfortunately, the only appropriate punishment to ensure the fairness of the judicial process.”
Albrights notes that the court made no determination that Ronaldo committed a crime, and found no evidence that his lawyers and representatives “terrorized Mayorga or obstructed law enforcement” when the criminal charges were dropped and the $375,000 secret settlement ended in August 2010.