Rape allegation against Cristiano Ronaldo dropped in US

The rape allegation against Cristiano Ronaldo was filed in the United States. The case took place in the state of Nevada, where the crime would have been committed, and was led by Judge Jennifer Dorsey.

The whistleblower is American model Kathryn Mayorga. She says the Portuguese player raped her at the Palms hotel in Las Vegas in 2009.

The process that was ongoing, however, was only opened in 2018, when she asked for the annulment of an agreement she would have made with the Portuguese star in 2010 to receive US$ 375 thousand (R$ 1.8 million today and about R$ $730,000 at the time) in exchange for silence on the case.

The alleged crime was allegedly committed on June 12, 2009, at the Palms hotel in Las Vegas, but the process was opened almost ten years later based on documents that made public confidential discussions between Ronaldo and his lawyers. These files would have been leaked by the website Football Leaks and revealed by the German magazine Der Spiegel in a report on the subject.

Ronaldo’s defense claimed the electronic documents had been stolen, and his Las Vegas attorney Peter Christiansen said the information had been altered or fabricated.

In the case filed, the model demanded compensation of around 64 million euros (approximately R$335 million in current values) and the annulment of that agreement.

The reason for the filing, according to the Associated Press and AFP, was the punishment for improper conduct of the model’s lawyer, Leslie Stovall, for the use of these leaked documents.

The judge said the decision was a serious sanction, but that “Stovall’s conduct harmed Ronaldo”. Also according to the Associated Press, Mayorga may appeal the decision.

Since the complaint came to light, the Portuguese and his lawyers do not deny that there was a sexual relationship between the model and Cristiano Ronaldo, but they claim that it was consensual. In 2018, the star called the complaint a “media spectacle” in a post on social media.