Las Vegas Police Reopen Investigation Into Sexual Assault Claim Said to Involve Ronaldo

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/01/sports/cristiano-ronaldo-rape-case.html

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement Monday that it had reopened an investigation into a report of a rape of a woman who says her attacker was the soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo.

The police department, in response to queries from news organizations, issued the statement saying it was once again investigating the case and following up on information provided by the victim, though it did not name the woman or any suspect.

The woman, Kathryn Mayorga, filed a lawsuit against Ronaldo, the Portuguese star who plays for the Italian club Juventus, on Thursday in Clark County, Nev. She said that she was paid $375,000 by Ronaldo to settle her claims and that she had signed a nondisclosure agreement.

A number of documents that Mayorga’s representatives say support her allegation have been published in the German magazine Der Spiegel. Ronaldo’s legal team called their publication “blatantly illegal.In a statement, Christian Schertz, a lawyer for Ronaldo, threatened Der Spiegel and any news organization that might repeat its reporting, citing Ronaldo’s privacy:

“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. 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 comMayorga said the attack occurred early in the morning on June 13, 2009, in a suite in the Palms Place Hotel. Ronaldo, who was in the midst of a blockbuster transfer from Manchester United to Real Madrid, met Mayorga at a Las Vegas nightclub and invited her and others back to his suite.

According to the lawsuit, Mayorga reported the assault to the police later that day and received a medical examination, during which evidence was collected in what is sometimes known as a rape kit. A Las Vegas police spokeswoman confirmed that Mayorga had filed a report on July 13, 2009 and was examined, but said she did not name the person who was accused. The case was reopened at Mayorga’s request last month.

Last year, Der Spiegel reported the existence of the settlement. The magazine had received documents — including an unsigned copy of the settlement and a six-page letter Mayorga wrote to Ronaldo as part of it — through Football Leaks, a WikiLeaks-like website that has publicly released scores of confidential soccer-related documents. Der Spiegel said they had repeatedly contacted Mayorga in advance of publication, but she refused to speak.pensation 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.”

Schertz did not directly challenge the rape allegation; Ronaldo called it “fake news” in an Instagram video.