Soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo will not face any criminal charges over the claims made against him by a Las Vegas woman last October. Kathryn Mayorga chose to go public last fall with claims that Ronaldo raped her in a Vegas hotel room in 2009.
The DA for the district that includes Las Vegas has decided not to move forward with the case. “Based upon a review of the information presented at this time, the allegations of sexual assault against Cristiano Ronaldo cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” the district attorney’s office in Clark County, Nev said via a public statement:
@LasVegasDA Declines to Prosecute 10-year-old Sexual Assault Allegation Against Cristiano Ronaldo. @ClarkCountyNV pic.twitter.com/XXdc8D9Plk
— Clark County DA (@LasVegasDA) July 22, 2019
This is a massive plot twist to say the least in a story that dominated world football headlines last fall.
Ronaldo is not totally in the clear in regards to this situation however.
There is still a civil suit, filed by Mayorga, pending against him in US court in Las Vegas that accuses the Portugese, or those working for him of committing conspiracy, defamation, breach of contract, coercion and fraud.
Mayorga’s attorney, Leslie Mark Stovall, claims the other side allowed the terms of what had been a confidential financial settlement to be made public.
Both sides have publicly acknowledged that Mayorga received $375,000 in hush money following the encounter a decade ago with the Juventus superstar.
One could argue that had it not been for the #MeToo movement taking off in 2017, these allegations might have never been brought into the public sphere.
According to Yahoo: “Police said the initial investigation was closed in 2009 because Mayorga only identified her attacker as a European footballer, not by name, and did not say where she claims the rape took place.”
It was reopened in late 2018, shortly after the lawsuit was filed.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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