A federal Justice of the Peace decide in Nevada has sided with Cristiano Ronaldo’s attorneys towards a girl who sued for greater than the $375,000 in hush cash she acquired in 2010 after saying the worldwide soccer star raped her in Las Vegas.
In a scathing advice to the decide listening to the case, Magistrate Judge Daniel Albregts on Wednesday blamed Kathryn Mayorga’s lawyer, Leslie Mark Stovall, for inappropriately basing the civil damages lawsuit on leaked and stolen paperwork proven to be privileged communications between Ronaldo and his attorneys.
“Dismissing Mayorga’s case for the inappropriate conduct of her attorney is a harsh result,” the Justice of the Peace wrote in his 23-page report back to U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey. “But it is, unfortunately, the only appropriate sanction to ensure the integrity of the judicial process.”
“Stovall has acted in bad faith to his client’s _ and his profession’s _ detriment,” Albregts determined.
Stovall and different attorneys in his workplace didn’t instantly reply Thursday to phone and e-mail messages about Albregt’s report.
Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
A date for Dorsey to take up the advice was not instantly set.
Ronaldo’s lawyer in Las Vegas, Peter Christiansen, issued a press release calling Ronaldo’s authorized group “pleased with the court’s detailed review … and its willingness to justly apply the law to the facts and recommend dismissal of the civil case against Mr. Ronaldo.”
The Associated Press typically doesn’t identify individuals who say they’re victims of sexual assault, however Mayorga gave consent by way of Stovall and lawyer Larissa Drohobyczer to make her identify public.
Albregts famous the court docket didn’t discover that Ronaldo dedicated a criminal offense and located no proof his attorneys and representatives “intimidated Mayorga or impeded law enforcement” when Mayorga dropped prison expenses and finalized the $375,000 confidential settlement in August 2010.
Ronaldo, now 36, is among the most recognizable and extremely paid gamers in sports activities. He has captained his dwelling nation soccer group, Portugal, and performs for the English Premier League membership Manchester United. He spent a number of years taking part in in Italy for the Turin-based membership Juventus.
Mayorga, 37, is a former instructor and mannequin who lives within the Las Vegas space. She stated in her lawsuit filed first in state court docket and moved to federal court docket that Ronaldo or his associates violated the confidentiality settlement by permitting reviews about it to seem in European publications in 2017. She seeks to gather at the least $200,000 extra from Ronaldo.
She met Ronaldo at a nightclub in June 2009 and went with him and different folks to his resort suite, the place she stated he assaulted her in a bed room, based on the lawsuit. She was 25 on the time. He was 24.
Ronaldo’s attorneys have acknowledged the soccer star and Mayorga had intercourse, however stated it consensual and never rape.Mayorga went to Las Vegas police, however the investigation was dropped on the time as a result of Mayorga neither recognized her alleged attacker by identify nor stated the place the incident befell, Steve Wolfson, the elected prosecutor in Las Vegas, stated in 2019.
Wolfson determined to not file prison expenses based mostly on a brand new investigation by Las Vegas police in 2018 as a result of he stated an excessive amount of time had handed and proof failed to point out that Mayorga’s accusation may very well be confirmed at trial past an affordable doubt.
Word of the monetary settlement grew to become public after the German information outlet Der Spiegel revealed an article in 2017 titled “Cristiano Ronaldo’s Secret” based mostly on paperwork obtained from “whistleblower portal Football Leaks.”
“The article makes it clear that these documents included privileged communications … between Ronaldo’s European and U.S. attorneys about the settlement,” Albregts wrote.
Stovall “acted in bad faith by asking for, receiving, and using the Football Leaks documents to prosecute Mayorga’s case,” the Justice of the Peace decide discovered.
“Although Stovall never received _ or even sought _ an ethics opinion … he had multiple opportunities to recognize the privileged nature of the documents, starting with the 2017 Der Spiegel article, which quotes privileged communications.”
Albregts rejected Stovall’s argument that utilizing the paperwork was justified as a result of Stovall wasn’t the one who stole them and he couldn’t show they had been stolen.
The lawyer’s efforts to make confidential paperwork public by way of court docket filings had been “audacious,” “impertinent” and “abusive,” the Justice of the Peace stated.
Albregts really useful Dorsey additionally dismiss Stovall’s declare that as a result of Mayorga had studying disabilities as a baby and was pressured by Ronaldo’s representatives she lacked the psychological capability to signal the 2010 confidentiality settlement.
The ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco dominated early this yr that it might be as much as Dorsey to determine that query.
“Mayorga’s case against Ronaldo would probably not exist had Stovall not asked for the Football Leaks documents,” Albregts wrote, and Mayorga’s information of the paperwork’ contents “cannot be undone.”
“There is no possible way for this case to proceed where the court cannot tell what arguments and testimony are based on these privileged documents,” he stated.
