Getty Cristiano Ronaldo of Juventus looks on during the Serie A match between FC Internazionale and Juventus at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza on April 27, 2019 in Milan, Italy.
Since October 2018, Kathryn Mayorga’s lawyers have tried to track down the Italian address of Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, who Mayorga alleges raped her in Las Vegas in spring 2009.
It was reported at the time by the Associated Press that global soccer phenom Cristiano Ronaldo “has been left off Portugal’s national team squad for a pair of upcoming matches, the decision coming as the soccer great fights rape allegations in the United States.”
On Thursday, her lawyers finally discovered his address in Turin to issue the 34-year old Ronaldo “rape summons,” according to the Mirror. “They are expected to send the document in the next couple of weeks, once it has been translated,” Christopher Bucklin writes.
Edvard Pettersson of Bloomberg reported that she filed a voluntary dismissal of the case late last month at Nevada state court, with it unclear whether Ronaldo and Mayorga reached a settlement in the case.
Here’s what you need to know about the timeline of these allegations, as well as Mayorga’s past with Ronaldo.
1. Mayorga Alleges That Ronaldo Sodomized Her in a Las Vegas Hotel Hot Tub
Ronaldo Accused Of Rape By An American Woman, Kathryn Mayorga t.co/my5HUOcErE
She filed a complaint on Sept. 27 in the Clark County Nevada Eighth Judicial District Court. Mayorga states that when she was 25 in June 2009, she went to the Vegas nightclub Rain with a friend when she met Ronaldo. He invited her back to his hotel room.
Our own Ellyn Santiago paraphrases from the complaint:
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.”
You can read the full complaint below.
2. Reports Emerged that Ronaldo Admitted in Legal Documents That Mayorga Said No Multiple Times
Der Spiegel reported legal documents that showed in Sep. 2018 that Ronaldo admitted in a questionnaire to having non-consensual sex with Mayorga. Combined with the original complaint, Der Spiegel writes that the documents could have damaging consequences for the soccer legend once placed in a courtroom.
That complaint is supported by a 27-page document that could have far-reaching consequences for the football star. The document contains a version of how Ronaldo experienced that night, including the following quote: “She said no and stop several times.”
The Daily Mail goes further into the documents, reporting that Ronaldo admitted to the interviewer that he could have bruised her.
‘She said that she didn’t want to, but she made herself available. The whole time it was rough, I turned her onto her side, and it was fast. Maybe she got some bruises when I grabbed her.
‘She didn’t want to give it to me, instead she jerked me off. I don’t know any more exactly what she said when she was jerking me off. But she kept saying “No. Don’t do it, I’m not like the others.” I apologized afterwards.’
3. The Complaint Also States That He Paid Mayorga Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars in Hush Money
Kathryn Mayorga, now 34, claims that Cristiano Ronaldo raped her in Las Vegas in 2009 and paid her $375,000 as hush money.
Soon after the assault, she reported it to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, saying the perpetrator was a famous soccer player “out of fear of public humiliation and retaliation.” Medical examinations at the University Medical Center proved “physical evidence of the sodomy,” states the complaint. A week later, she named Ronaldo during a police interview. As Santiago writes, “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.”
As Der Spiegel separately reported in April 2017, the two eventually signed a non-disclosure agreement that saw her get paid $375,000 while he played with Real Madrid.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department issued a statement from its Office of Public Information, stating that they received the complaint and were reopening the investigation.
4. Ronaldo Has Repeatedly Denied the Allegations, and Has Not Addressed the Rape Summons News
Outside of the legal questionnaire, Ronaldo has repeatedly and publicly denied the allegations.
“My clear conscious will thereby allow me to await with tranquillity the results of any and all investigations,” he tweeted in Oct. 2018.
On the Instagram Live post above, he called the allegations “fake news.
“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.”
After the news surfaced about the rape summons, Ronaldo quickly posted a picture on Instagram advertising Amalfi footwear. He has not provided a comment about the summons at this time.
In a press release after the initial Der Spiegel, Ronaldo’s lawyer Professor Dr. Christian Schertz criticized the magazine, claiming that it violated Ronaldo’s privacy and was “illegal.” The court documents are 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.”
5. The Italian Central Authority Now Must Deliver the Summons to Ronaldo’s Residence to Get the Ball Rolling on a Formal Lawsuit
As the Mirror reported, Mayorga’s legal team was running out of time to get the complaint to Ronaldo.
“Last month,” Bucklin writes, “with time running out and her legal team struggling to find someone to track down the Portugal national team captain, a US judge allowed an extra 180 days for the summons to be delivered.”
In Italy, the statute of limitations on lawsuits between individuals is 10 years, according to Reuters Practical Law. “There is a mandatory period of 90 days between the date of service and the first hearing (150 days if the defendant is served abroad).”
This means that a potential court date between Ronaldo and Mayorga could happen in the next three to five months, barring a settlement beforehand.