A US district judge in Las Vegas has removed a rape lawsuit against football virtuoso Cristiano Ronaldo, rebuking the legal team behind the complaint.
Judge Jennifer Dorsey dismissed the case brought by Kathryn Mayorga of Nevada, who claimed she was assaulted by CR7 in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2009.
In a 42-page ruling released, the judge claimed Mayorga’s attorneys of ‘abuses and flagrant circumvention of the proper litigation process’ and stated that as a result, ‘Mayorga loses her opportunity to pursue this case.’
Her attorneys had actually moved to remove the case ppurposely last month, US media stated, however Dorsey decided that their repeated use of illegally obtained confidential documents meant the case had to be thrown out ‘with prejudice’ – which means it cannot be brought up.
“Nothing less than a with-prejudice dismissal will purge the taint that has permeated this case from its very inception and preserve the integrity of the litigation process,” Dorsey cited.
Mayorga filed a complaint in September past year claiming she was sexually approached by Ronaldo, who strongly refused the accusations.
Mayorga stated that whilst she had concurred to a financial settlement with Ronaldo shortly following the alleged incident — reportedly for $375,000 — her emotional disturbance at the time did not permit her to take part in the mediation process.
However, in trying to bring up the case, Dorsey found, Mayorga’s lawyer Leslie Stovall made frequent use of ‘cyber-hacked attorney-client privileged documents.’
That use of the documents was ‘bad faith,’ the judge ruled, ‘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 Mayorga’s claims.’
Ronaldo is one of the super stars of world football and is a five-time earner of the Ballon d’Or award for the world’s best player.
