Cristiano Ronaldo‘s legal fight against a woman who accused him of raping her in his suite at a Las Vegas resort more than 10 years ago has not ended.
The case will be heard before a federal judge in Nevada, Jennifer Dorsey. This will help her decide whether Kathryn Mayorga was mentally fit to enter a 2010 hush-money agreement with Ronaldo’s representatives. She was reportedly paid $375,000 as a settlement.
Although no date has been set for the case, Ronaldo’s attorney, Peter Christiansen, is yet to comment, having asked the judge to dismiss the rape case.
No immediate comment from Mayorga’s legal team led by Leslie Mark Stovall as well. There was no response to email and telephone messages about the judge’s ruling, issued September 30.
Since the case is set to be heard, Dorsey will discover whether Mayorga “lacked the mental capacity” to sign a confidentiality arrangement with Ronaldo’s representatives and “whether any agreement … was ever formed between the parties.”
Ahead of the suit date, what remains unclear is whether Ronaldo or Mayorga will be present in court when a trial starts.
Trial to be agreed by both parties
The judge has now given both sides until the end of November to agree upon a plan for a bench trial.
However, Dorsey’s order could be appealed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
This is now a setback for Ronaldo’s legal representatives. They have so far kept details of the 2010 settlement sealed.
U.S. district judges have the power to overrule magistrate judges, who handle court filings and pretrial arguments.
35-year-old Ronaldo plies his trade with Serie A giant, Juventus, who have stood by him all the way.
37-year-old Mayorga is a former teacher and model who lives in the Las Vegas area.
According to what she stated in her lawsuit, Ronaldo or his associates violated the confidentiality agreement by allowing reports about it to appear in European publications in 2017. She now wants at least $200,000 more from Ronaldo.
According to Ronaldo’s lawyers, media reports were based on electronic data illegally hacked, stolen, and sold by cybercriminals. They also stated that the documents have been altered and complained that Mayorga’s lawsuit damages Ronaldo’s reputation.
How they met
According to Mayorga, she met Ronaldo at a nightclub in 2009 and went with him and other people to his hotel suite.
In her lawsuit, she alleged that the football star assaulted her in a bedroom while she was 25 while Ronaldo was 24.
However, Ronaldo, through his legal representative maintained that the sex was consensual.
According to Stovall, Mayorga had learning disabilities as a child and was pressured by Ronaldo’s representatives to sign a nondisclosure agreement. They said she lacked the legal capacity to sign such an agreement.
“The court must decide whether Mayorga lacked the mental capacity to assent to the settlement agreement,” Dorsey wrote.
She further said that if Mayorga was fit to enter the agreement, it binds her to confidentiality and an arbitrator’s decision behind closed doors about whether the contract was legal and valid.
