Palms Casino Cristiano Ronaldo Rape Lawsuit May Be Tossed By Nevada Judge

Posted on: October 8, 2021, 10:00h. 

Last updated on: October 8, 2021, 12:52h.

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

A Nevada judge has recommended dismissing a lawsuit that accuses soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo of raping a woman in his Palms Casino penthouse 12 years ago.

Cristiano Ronaldo lawsuit
Cristiano Ronaldo and Katherine Mayorga photographed at the Palms Casino nightclub on July 12, 2009, the night of the alleged attack. (Image: Associated Press)

Las Vegas resident Katherine Mayorga sued the Portuguese national in 2018, claiming battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, coercion, fraud, and abuse of a vulnerable person. She alleges Ronaldo raped her on the night of July 12, 2009, after the pair had met that evening at the casino’s nightclub. Via her lawyers, she has given consent to make her name public.

Magistrate Judge Daniel Albregts wrote Wednesday that much of the case was based on leaked and stolen documents. Those were privileged communications between the Manchester United player and his attorneys, the judge said.

He added that Mayorga’s lawyer, Leslie Stoval, should not have submitted the documents as exhibits in public filings to the court. In doing so, he had “acted in bad faith to his client’s and his profession’s detriment,” according to Albregts.

“Dismissing Mayorga’s case for the inappropriate conduct of her attorney is a harsh result,” Albregts wrote in his recommendation to Judge Jennifer Dorsey, who is hearing the case. “But it is, unfortunately, the only appropriate sanction to ensure the integrity of the judicial process.”

Disputed Document Leak

The documents in question were passed to German news magazine Der Spiegel in October 2018 by the hacktivist Football Leaks website.

They include a purported “information-gathering questionnaire” sent to Ronaldo by his legal team shortly after the alleged incident. In this document, 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.

Certain details of X’s description of the incident appear to match the account Mayorga gave to Las Vegas police at the time. These include the details that he “entered her from behind,” that she repeatedly shouted “No,” and that he apologized to her afterward, before adding that he was “usually a gentleman.”

Case Dropped, Resurrected 

The publication of the documents appeared to have been the catalyst for Mayorga to sue Ronaldo.

She says she did not follow up the case after her initial contact with Las Vegas police because she feared “public humiliation and retaliation.” The department 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 agreed to sign a non-disclosure agreement, offering to drop her claim against the player for a $375,000 settlement. But in her lawsuit, she claims she was coerced into signing the agreement by Ronaldo’s “legal fixers” at a time when she was “mentally incapacitated.”

A date has not been set for Dorsey to take up Albregts’ recommendation.