Rape probe against Ronaldo reopened
las vegas — Police in Las Vegas have reopened a sexual assault investigation from 2009 at the request of a woman who has alleged she was raped by global soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Nevada woman has also sued Ronaldo and is participating in the investigation, according to a complaint filed by her lawyer.
Kathryn Mayorga sued Ronaldo in a district court in Clark County, Nevada on Thursday, and is also seeking to void a $375,000 settlement she alleges she was coerced into signing to keep quiet, according to the complaint. On Monday, Ronaldo’s agent Gestifute said they had no comment beyond a Friday statement by Ronaldo’s lawyer Christian Schertz, who called the German magazine report “an inadmissible reporting of suspicions in the area of privacy”.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police on Monday said an incident report with the number listed in Mayorga’s lawsuit was filed on the night of the alleged attack, and said the case was reopened last month after the unidentified victim came forward with new information. They declined to say whether the athlete was the subject of an investigation.
Lawyers for Ronaldo, one of the world’s bestknown athletes, on Friday threatened to sue German magazine Der Spiegel that published the accusation. Der Spiegel’s deputy editor-inchief Alfred Weinzierl said the magazine stood fully by its story. “We have worked professionally as journalists, confronted, and laid out the evidence. Schertz claims that this is illegal. We say: It is allowed under Germany’s press law,” he said.