Rape news is fake: Ronaldo
Las Vegas, Oct. 3: A lawyer for a Nevada woman alleging that soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo raped her in Las Vegas in 2009 said Tuesday her client was “emotionally fragile” and agreed to an out- of- court financial settlement nine years ago because she never wanted her name made public.
Kathryn Mayorga is out of the U. S. and is not speaking with media about the lawsuit she filed last week seeking monetary damages from Ronaldo, attorney Larissa Drohobyczer told The Associated Press. Drohobyczer didn’t say where Mayorga was. She lives in the Las Vegas- area city of Henderson.
AP does not typically identify alleged victims of sexual assault, but Drohobyczer said Mayorga gave permission on Tuesday for her name to be used.
“She’s not going to be interviewed,” the attorney said. “At this time she’s emotionally fragile.”
The civil lawsuit filed in state court in Las Vegas alleges Ronaldo raped Mayorga, who was then 24, in his penthouse suite at a Las Vegas hotel and hired a team of what the document called “fixers” to shape the monetary settlement, obstruct a police criminal investigation and trick Mayorga into taking $ 375,000 to keep quiet.
An attorney for Ronaldo, Christian Schertz in Berlin, did not immediately respond to emails from AP. It was not immediately clear if the player had an attorney representing him in the matter in the U. S. After the German magazine Der Spiegel reported about the lawsuit last week, Schertz threatened to sue, saying the article violated Ronaldo’s personal rights “in an exceptionally serious way.” In an Instagram video posted hours after the suit was filed, Ronaldo appears to deny the allegations.
“Fake. Fake news,” said the five- time world player of the year. “You want to promote by my name. It’s normal. They want to be famous, to say my name. But it is part of the job. I am a happy man and all good.”
Drohobyczer, who said she did not represent Mayorga in 2009 negotiations with Ronaldo’s representatives, acknowledged Mayorga accepted the settlement money.
No court document was filed, and Drohobyczer declined to identify the lawyers who handled the case at that time for Mayorga and for Ronaldo.
An attorney who may have represented Mayorga in 2009 did not respond Tuesday to messages from AP. Drohobyczer said Mayorga, now 34, became worried that her name would become public after a 2017 media report apparently referred to the June 2009 incident at the Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. — AP