Cristiano Ronaldo Palms Casino Rape Claim Dismissed by Las Vegas Judge

Posted on: June 12, 2022, 04:01h. 

Last updated on: June 12, 2022, 05:42h.

Philip Conneller @casinoorgphilc Read More
Expertise: Gaming Business, Regulation, Tribal Gaming.

A Las Vegas judge has dismissed a civil lawsuit that accused global soccer icon Cristiano Ronaldo of raping a woman at his penthouse at the Palms Casino Resort in 2009.

Ronaldo rape
Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates with Portugal teammate Ruben Neves during a recent UEFA Nations League game against Spain. (Image: Getty)

US District Judge Jennifer Dorsey determined that the accuser’s lawyer had based the case on leaked, stolen records. These were confidential and privileged conversations between Ronaldo and his lawyer that should not have been admitted as prosecution evidence, she added.

Dorsey said Leslie Stoval, attorney for the plaintiff in the case, Kathryn Mayorga, harmed Ronaldo by conducting himself in “bad faith” by relying on the documents, which constituted “abuses and flagrant circumvention of the proper litigation process.”

As a result, “Mayorga loses her opportunity to pursue this case,” Dorsey wrote.

The documents in question were allegedly stolen by the hacktivist Football Leaks website and published in October 2018 by German news magazine Der Spiegel.

Among them was a purported “information-gathering questionnaire” sent to Ronaldo by his lawyers shortly after the alleged incident. In the questionnaire, an individual referred to as “X,” who is alleged to be Ronaldo, appears to admit he engaged in non-consensual sex with Mayorga.

Ronaldo’s legal team claim they were falsified.

NDA Settlement

Las Vegas resident Mayorga sued Ronaldo in 2018, alleging he raped her on the night of July 12, 2009. The pair had met that evening at the casino’s nightclub.

The lawsuit claimed battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, coercion, fraud, and abuse of a vulnerable person.

Mayorga reported the alleged assault to Las Vegas Metro Police the next day, but did not follow through because she “feared public humiliation and retaliation,” according to her lawsuit.

Medical tests that day showed Mayorga was suffering from anal swelling, with abrasions and lacerations.

Las Vegas police resurrected the case in 2018, but dropped it a year later, concluding the allegations could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

In 2010, Mayorga signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), in which she agreed to drop any claim against the Portuguese national for a $375,000 settlement. Her lawsuit claims she was “coerced” into signing the agreement by Ronaldo’s legal fixers at a time when she was “mentally incapacitated.”

‘Abominable Crime’

Ronaldo’s legal team say the NDA was not an admission of guilt. The soccer star has denied the allegations, describing rape in general as “an abominable crime that goes against everything that I am and believe in.”

Mayorga has suffered from PTSD and depression since the alleged attack, according to her complaint.

The controversial documents contained details that appeared to match the account Mayorga gave to Las Vegas police at the time. These include that the individual, referred to as “X,” “entered her from behind,” that she repeatedly shouted “No,” and that “X” apologized to her afterward, before adding that he was “usually a gentleman.”