US judge dismisses Cristiano Ronaldo rape lawsuit in Vegas

A Nevada woman has lost her bid in a U.S. court to force international soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo to pay millions of dollars more than the $375,000 in hush money she received after claiming he raped her in Las Vegas in 2009.

U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey in Las Vegas kicked the case out of court on Friday to punish the woman's attorney, Leslie Mark Stovall, for 'bad-faith conduct' and the use of 'purloined' confidential documents that the judge said tainted the case beyond redemption.

Dorsey said in her 42-page order that dismissing a case outright with no option to file it again is a severe sanction, but said Ronaldo had been harmed by Stovall´s conduct.

Kathryn Mayorga claims that the Juventus star sexually assaulted her in 2009 after they met at the Rain Nightclub in the Palms hotel.

Mayorga initially sued Ronaldo and claimed that he'd handed her $375,000 to buy her silence. However, she pursued a criminal case against the star after saying that she wanted the agreement quashed.

She accused Ronaldo of asking to perform a sex act on him, leading her to refuse and say she wanted to leave the hotel.

Ronaldo's legal team does not dispute that the two had sex, but maintains the encounter was consensual, and a confidentiality agreement prevents both sides from talking about it. He has never been criminally charged over the claims.

In the ruling on Friday, Dorsey wrote: 'I find that the procurement and continued use of these documents was bad faith, and simply disqualifying Stovall will not cure the prejudice to Ronaldo because the misappropriated documents and their confidential contents have been woven into the very fabric of (plaintiff Kathryn) Mayorga's claims.

'Harsh sanctions are merited.'

In her claims against the international soccer star, Mayorga said that she accompanied Ronaldo to his room at a Las Vegas hotel in 2009. She claimed he pulled her onto a bed and tried to have sex with her as she fought him off, only for him to rape her she screamed 'no, no, no'.

The player denied the allegations and responded to the accusation by saying: 'Rape is an abominable crime that goes against everything that I am and believe in.'

Clark County District Attorney's Office said in 2019 that it won't prosecute the alleged attack, which was reported to police on June 13 in 2009.

They told TMZ that officers who attended the hotel on that day could not 'conduct any meaningful investigation' because the woman refused to identify an attacker and would not say where she had been assaulted.

'Without knowing the identity of the perpetrator or the location of the crime, detectives were unable to search for and impound vital forensic evidence,' the prosecutors said.

'In addition, video evidence, showing interactions between the victim and perpetrator before and after the alleged crime, was lost. The criminal investigation was closed.'

The prosecution team maintains that a a civil settlement was reached in 2010 and nothing more was reported to police until August 2018.

Mayorga named the former Manchester United player and asked for the investigation to be reopened.

Stovall did not immediately respond Saturday to telephone and email messages. Text messages to associate Larissa Drohobyczer were not answered. They could appeal the decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Ronaldo's attorney in Las Vegas, Peter Christiansen, was traveling and was not immediately reachable for comment.