June 13 – A US judge has dismissed a rape allegation lawsuit against Cristiano Ronaldo because of the way documents were obtained by the accuser’s legal team.
Kathryn Mayorga alleges that the Portuguese super star raped her at a Las Vegas hotel in 2009.
Ronaldo denies the allegations and has never been charged.
Mayorga, a former model and teacher whose lawsuit said she met Ronaldo at a nightclub, reportedly reached an out-of-court settlement in 2010, but has been seeking millions more than the $375,000 she is said to have received.
The lawsuit sought a further pay-out, which might have run into millions of dollars, but US District Judge Jennifer Dorsey kicked the case out of court on Friday.
Dorsey accepted the recommendation of a federal magistrate, saying an attorney for Mayorga, Leslie Mark Stovall, had used “misappropriated documents” and that Ronaldo could therefore not have had a fair trial.
“Stovall’s repeated use of stolen, privileged documents to prosecute this case has every indication of bad-faith conduct,” her judgement said.
“Because of her attorney’s abuses and flagrant circumvention of the proper litigation process, Mayorga loses her opportunity to pursue this case and attempt to unwind the settlement of claims that, themselves, implicate serious allegations of a highly personal nature.”
The case was dismissed with prejudice, meaning Mayorga cannot refile the complaint.
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