US judge dismisses rape lawsuit against Cristiano Ronaldo in Las Vegas
- Kathryn Mayorga has lost her bid to force international football star Ronaldo to pay millions of dollars more than the US$375,000 in hush money she has received
- US District Judge Jennifer Dorsey in Las Vegas kicked the case out of court on Friday to punish the woman’s lawyer, Leslie Mark Stovall, for ‘bad-faith conduct’
A US district judge has dismissed a rape lawsuit against football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, castigating the legal team behind the complaint.
Judge Jennifer Dorsey threw out the case brought by Kathryn Mayorga, a former model and teacher, who alleged she was assaulted by the Portuguese soccer star in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2009.
The 37-year-old Manchester United player has always denied the allegations and maintained that the relationship with Mayorga was completely consensual.
In a 42-page ruling released on Friday, the judge accused Mayorga’s lawyers of “abuses and flagrant circumvention of the proper litigation process” and said that as a result, “Mayorga loses her opportunity to pursue this case.”
Her lawyers had actually moved to dismiss the case voluntarily last month, US media reported, but Dorsey decided that their repeated use of illicitly obtained confidential documents meant the case had to be dismissed “with prejudice” – meaning it cannot be revived.
“Nothing less than a with-prejudice dismissal will purge the taint that has permeated this case from its very inception and preserve the integrity of the litigation process,” Dorsey wrote.
A criminal case based on the rape allegation against the Manchester United forward was dropped in 2019, with a district attorney saying it “cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt” that a sexual assault occurred.