Vegas lawyer: Ronaldo rape accuser ‘emotionally fragile’

LAS VEGAS: A lawyer for a Nevada woman alleging that football star Cristiano Ronaldo raped her in Las Vegas in 2009 said 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 United States and is not speaking with media about the lawsuit she filed last week seeking monetary damages from Ronaldo, attorney Larissa Drohobyczer said.

Drohobyczer didn’t say where Mayorga was. She lives in the Las Vegas-area city of Henderson.

Reporters do 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 US$375,000 (RM1.6mil) to keep quiet.

An attorney for Ronaldo, Christian Schertz in Berlin, did not immediately respond to e-mails from reporters.

It was not immediately clear if the player had an attorney representing him in the matter in the US.

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.” — AP