A US appeals court has denied claims made against Cristiano Ronaldo by Kathryn Mayorga and her lawyers to pay more money than the $375,000 in hush money he had after she accused him of raping her in 2009.
Mayorga’s lawyer had asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the dismissal of the case in June 2022 and reopen the civil lawsuit she first filed in Nevada in 2018. The appeal argued the federal court judge in Nevada erred in repeatedly rejecting the victim’s attempts to unseal and include as evidence the confidentiality agreement she signed in 2010 in accepting payments from Ronaldo.
This was disagreed by the three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based appellate court in the latest development. “The district court clearly recognized the gravity of dismissing the case and accordingly provided a thorough analysis, amply supported by factual findings,” Judge Johnnie Rawlinson wrote in Tuesday’s 6-page opinion per The Associated Press (AP).
The case dates back to 2009 when Mayorga, a former teacher and Las Vegas based model, accused Ronaldo of sexually assaulting her in her bedroom.
The Portuguese footballer and his lawyers have maintained their stance that the act between the two parties was strictly consensual.
Last year, Judge Jennifer Dorsey in Las Vegas had levied a $335,000 fine against Mayorga’s lead lawyer, Leslie Mark Stovall, for acting in “bad faith” in filing the case on his client’s behalf.
“I find that the procurement and continued use of these documents was bad faith, and simply disqualifying Stovall will not cure the prejudice to Ronaldo because the misappropriated documents and their confidential contents have been woven into the very fabric of [plaintiff Kathryn] Mayorga’s claims,” Dorsey’s ruling had read. “Harsh sanctions are merited.”