The Kathryn Mayorga rape case against global football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is moving foward once again, and towards a potential trial.
U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey said she will hear arguments and decide herself whether Kathryn Mayorga, a 37-year-old model-turned-schoolteacher from Nevada, was mentally fit to enter into her 2010 hush-money agreement with Ronaldo’s reps that paid her $375,000.
Mayorga alleges that the rape took place at Ronaldo’s penthouse suite at the Palms Casino Resort on June 13th, 2009 when she was age 24. Ronaldo has repeatedly denied her allegations and claimed that they had consensual sex.
Kathryn Mayorga filed a lawsuit against Ronaldo, Juventus superstar and Portugal National Team Captain in 2018 after details of their non-disclosure agreement leaked to European publications. According to the Associated Press, she is seeking at least $200,000 in damages for conspiracy, defamation, breach of contract, coercion and fraud.
Ronaldo’s attorney, Peter Christiansen, who acknowledged the 2010 settlement in 2018, declined to comment on Tuesday. Mayorga’s attorney, Leslie Mark Stovall, argues she “was pressured by Ronaldo’s representatives and lacked the legal capacity to sign a non-disclosure agreement,” per AP’s Ken Ritter.
Her camp has also declined comment to media at this time.
It is unclear whether or not Mayorga and/or Ronaldo will have to appear in court, but in July of 2019, the Las Vegas DA announced they would not prosecute Ronaldo for alleged criminal sexual assault.
The legal dispute is over the NDA and the validity of it. As the legal process continues, the specifics of that agreement could become unsealed.
Depending on what information might emerge from that unsealing, this could prove very damaging to ther former Manchester United and Real Madrid’s huge individual brand, as some of his sponsors have justifiably and understandably expressed concern about his case in the past.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, 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,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.