Cristiano Ronaldo has been served with court papers and the battle is now underway. He faces accusations of rape by Kathryn Mayorga. She claims the Portuguese football star assaulted her in a Las Vegas hotel in 2009.
On Friday, Mayorga’s legal team was able to get the documents to Ronaldo after she dropped the Nevada state lawsuit. Which they said hampered the process. “Ronaldo’s legal team has already responded to the lawsuit. With court documents of their own in which they ask the judge for permission to file a new 46-page document. Which will presumably lay out their argument for the court to throw out the case.”
She said that while she had agreed to a financial settlement with Ronaldo shortly after the alleged incident, her emotional trauma at the time did not allow her to participate in the mediation process.
Mayorga’s attorney added that the model agreed to an out-of-court settlement to keep her name from going public. But she has gotten inspiration to speak out by the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment.
Ronaldo’s lawyers have said that the non-disclosure agreement signed with Mayorga was “by no means a confession of guilt”. She had initially filed a police report describing the alleged crime but didn’t identify Ronaldo by name.
In her original lawsuit, Mayorga says she later accepted a $375,000 payment in exchange for her silence. But now, she wants that agreement voided.
The Las Vegas Metro Police Dept. reopened the case. So far, no charges have been brought against the soccer star.
Ronaldo has previously denied the allegations, saying back in 2018. “Rape is an abominable crime that goes against everything that I am and believe in. Keen as I may be to clear my name, I refuse to feed the media spectacle created by people seeking to promote themselves at my expense.”