On a Thursday morning in October of 2018, global soccer phenom Cristiano Ronaldo was tossed from Portugal’s national team squad for a pair of matches as “the soccer great fights rape allegations in the United States.”
Around then, in the fall of ’18, lawyers were looking to serve the baller a summons but could not track him down. Now, many months later, they have.
The Mirror reported lawyers now have Ronaldo’s address in Turin, Italy and have “enlisted Italy’s Central Authority – the official process servers – to deliver the summons and complaint,” which is expected in the coming weeks, “once it has been translated.”
The rape allegation comes from American Kathryn Mayorga who filed a complaint in a Nevada district court that alleges Ronaldo raped her a decade ago and paid her $375,000 to never say a word to anyone.
Mayorga, now 35, claims Ronaldo forcibly sodomized her in a penthouse suite in the late spring of 2009. Mayorga, a Las Vegas native, was described in court records as being “raised in a middle-class family;” her father a firefighter and her mother a stay-at-home mom. She earned a degree in journalism but was “variously employed as a schoolteacher, model and sales-product representative,” and was previously married but then-separated from her husband and was openly dating and living a ‘typical’ life.
Ronaldo denies the sexual assault; that she was paid off is a matter of record. In January, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department released a statement that it had re-opened the investigation.
And issued a warrant for a sample of his DNA, sent to Italian authorities, the where the footballer is practicing and playing. After almost a decade, there’s a criminal investigation into the alleged rape and it’s reported investigators have found a stain on the dress Mayorga was wearing and want to see if it’s a match for Ronaldo.
Heavy reached out to Mayorga for comment on the case back in January and her response appeared shortly after, on her Instagram story.
The details of the assault are graphic and may be disturbing for some readers.
Now, in early June of 2019, it’s announced she has dropped her lawsuit against Ronaldo. What is not reported is why and if a settlement has been reached.
Bloomberg reported that in late May, Mayorga agreed to dismiss her claim against Ronaldo.
“A notice of voluntary dismissal was filed last month in Nevada state court in Las Vegas. The filing didn’t say whether the accuser had reached a settlement with the Portuguese soccer player,” Bloomberg reported.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Mayorga Alleges Ronaldo Unsuccessfully Tried to Rape Her Vaginally & Then Sodomized Her in His Vegas Hotel Room While People Partied in a Hot Tub
Kathryn Mayorga
In her complaint filed Sept. 27 in Clark County Nevada Eighth Judicial District Court, Mayorga says in June of 2009 she was invited by a friend to go to the Vegas nightclub Rain where she met Ronaldo in the club’s VIP section. Ronaldo invited a group of people to his hotel suite to check out the view of the city.
In the suite was a hot tub. Mayorga was invited in but said she did not have a swimsuit. Ronaldo offered her something to wear in the tub. She followed him into a room in the suite for gym shorts and a top, and when she went to the bathroom to change, he came in with an erect penis and told her to perform oral sex, the complaint reads. She said no, and stated she wanted to leave the suite. She alleges that Ronaldo then pulled her into a bedroom and onto a bed and tried to have intercourse with her. She covered herself to prevent it, the complaint states, and then, the complaint reads, Ronaldo turned her over and forcibly sodomized her while she screamed, “No, no no.”
Read the full complaint:
2. Mayorga Says Ronaldo Paid Her Hundreds of Thousands in Hush Money. The Footballer Denies Raping Mayorga
Ronaldo Accused Of Rape By An American Woman, Kathryn Mayorga t.co/my5HUOcErE
The complaint alleges that Ronaldo said he was sorry after the rape and that he was “usually a gentleman,” The complaint reads that Mayorga, with “anal contusions’ and in severe emotional distress, a post-trauma she suffers from to this day, she drove to her parents home and told a friend what happened.
Later that day, she reported the sexual assault to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police but did not name Ronaldo save to say he was a famous soccer player “out of fear of public humiliation and retaliation.” She was examined at University Medical Center “where physical evidence of the sodomy was documented and photographed.” Mayorga claims she was told by a nurse that if she named Ronaldo, she’d be accused of having consensual sex and then coming forward to make a rape claim for money, the complaint says. A week later, she was interviewed by a detective and named Ronaldo. The complaint states that the police too told her she’d be accused of making up a false claim to extort money. The complaint says that there was no police follow-up.
She hired a lawyer and Ronaldo’s “fixers,” the court document reads, “personal reputation protection specialists” who the complaint lists as defendants “DOES I-XV and ROES (corporations) I-XV” to “investigate, assess, and monitor” Mayorga, her family and friends and keep tabs on who she was talking to. And to make sure to keep tabs on efforts to publicly disclose the alleged sexual assault and what cops were doing. The complaint says Ronaldo’s “team” had a source within the police department who said the incident wold not be further investigated or prosecuted and suggested a settlement be negotiated to keep Mayorga from going public.
A settlement was reached and a non-disclosure agreement was signed. But her lawyers now say it was done at a time when Mayorga was seriously psychologically impacted from the trauma of the alleged rape that she was in no shape to be participating in a negotiation.
Monday afternoon, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department issued a statement from its Office of Public Information:
“The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department responded to a call of a sexual assault on June 13, 2009. At the time the report was taken, the victim did not provide detectives with the location of the incident or suspect description. A medical exam was conducted. As of September 2018, the case has been reopened and out detectives are following up on information being provided by the victim. This is an ongoing investigation and no further details will be released at this time.”
3. Her Lawyer Says the Hush Money Agreement Is Not Valid Since She Was Traumatized & ‘Terrified’
Kathryn Mayorga
She was suffering from severe psychological distress, was afraid to name the friend that had invited her to the nightclub for “fear of retaliation” and that she was “terrified” of being publicly humiliated and was “terrified” of Ronaldo. And though she agreed to a settlement, she was unable to consent.
The complaint says Mayorga was “incompetent” and did not have the mental capacity to agree to a settlement and an NDA. The complaint says she was extremely emotional, emotionally unstable, indecisive, irritable, agitated hyper-vigilant” and otherwise suffering from serious post-traumatic stress and that her lawyer and Ronaldo’s team were aware of that but nonetheless “agreed to a partial settlement which the defendant’s team leader characterize as an incomplete and cryptic settlement memo.”
@derWinterbach @Cristiano @Alyssa_Milano please stand with #KathrynMayorga she needs all the help she can get from #Ronaldo & his troll fans / stans!
His “team asserted that the settlement and non-disclosure agreement was intended to and did prevent (Mayorga) her family, friends and lawyer from speaking to anyone, including the police, about the sexual assault and should she or anyone associated with her do so, she would suffer severe legal and financial consequences and penalties.”
4. Mayorga’s Complaint Says Ronaldo’s ‘Team’ Was Part of a Conspiracy to Keep Her Quiet
Cristiano #Ronaldo is accused of raping a woman in 2009. This woman, her name is Kathryn #Mayorga, now files a complaint against him t.co/hsAIUXEwkg
In the complaint, her lawyers alleges Ronaldo’s team was able to “accomplish the goals of their conspiracy to obstruct and prevent a criminal investigation and prosecution.” The complaint includes what it says is a report from Ronaldo’s team:
“At the end of the day, given the type of claims which (Mayorga) has asserted in this case, in our opinion we have obtained an incredibly favorable settlement which will result in not only in the release of any and all civil claims in her choosing not to pursue a criminal case, which could have resulted in him being in prison for a life sentence for sexual assault (or having the catastrophic effect of his not being able to travel to the US to play), but which will also avert the devastating impact which such claims would have on his personal and professional reputation, endorsement and professional opportunities,” the complaint reads.
“We would not have been able to persuade either (Mayorga or her then-lawyer) or the mediator of the weakness of (Mayorga’s) claims and the strength of (Ronaldo’s) defenses had it not been for the invaluable work which was done in this case, which was not only useful and integral for purposes of mediation and settlement, but also necessary for the overall case, in terms of being able to protect him personally and professionally, under the fullest extent of the law, whether or not (Mayorga) went forward with her claims,” the Ronaldo team wrote as is quoted in Mayorga’s complaint.
“To this end, we have fully succeeded, and now we appear to have persuaded (Mayorga and her then-lawyer) of our positions on the material settlement terms of confidentiality and related tax issues, we anticipate being able to wrap this up and close this matter in short order.”
5. Ronaldo Says It’s ‘Fake News,’ as His Lawyers Threatened Legal Action Against the German Magazine That Reported the Story. Meanwhile, Portugal’s National Soccer Team Has Taken Him Off its Roster
The soccer superstar denied the accusations and decried the lawsuit as “fake news.”
On Instagram Live, Ronaldo spoke out hours after Mayorga’s complaint was made public. The Portuguese footballer said: “”No, no, no, no, no. What they said today? Fake, fake news.” He said “they wanna be famous…use my name…to be famous to say my name but yeah, it’s part of the job. I’m a happy man and all good.”
When the story about Mayorga’s allegation surfaced, Ronaldo’s girlfriend Georgina Rodriquez posted to Instagram that she was proud of him for overcoming “obstacles.” She does not reference the alleged rape. The 24-year-old former Gucci model has been dating the Real Madrid footballer for around two years.
In a press release, Ronaldo’s lawyer Professor Dr. Christian Schertz of the Berlin-based firm Schertz Bergmann Rechtsanwälte blasted Der Spiegel saying the magazine violated Ronaldo’s privacy and was “illegal.” The court documents, the source for Heavy’s reporting, are nonetheless public record.
“Following the current SPIEGEL reporting on our client Cristiano Ronaldo, we hereby declare the following: The reporting in SPIEGEL is blatantly illegal. It violates the personal rights of our client Cristiano Ronaldo in an exceptionally serious way. This is an inadmissible reporting of suspicions in the area of privacy,” the Schertz statement reads. “It would therefore already be unlawful to reproduce this reporting. We have been instructed to immediately assert all existing claims under press law against SPIEGEL, in particular compensation for moral damages in an amount corresponding to the gravity of the infringement, which is probably one of the most serious violations of personal rights in recent years.”
Meanwhile, the AP reported Thursday that Ronaldo “was left off the squad for Portugal’s second game in the UEFA Nations League at Poland on Oct. 11 and a friendly match in Glasgow against Scotland three days later.”
BREAKING: Cristiano Ronaldo has been left off Portugal’s national soccer team squad as he fights rape allegations.
It was reported that “Portugal coach Fernando Santos said Ronaldo also will not be called up for the next round of international games in November.”
The AP reported that Santos said the “decision was taken after a three-way conversation between him, Ronaldo and the head of the Portuguese soccer federation.”
“We agreed the player wouldn’t be available, wouldn’t be an option for selection,” Santos said. “For the next two squad selections, this one and the one next month, Ronaldo won’t be with us,” Santos was quoted as saying.
Santos declined to provide details and would not comment “on Ronaldo’s state of mind, saying the information was private and personal. Santos said he expected Ronaldo to play again for Portugal eventually,” it was reported.
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