US court denies appeal of Cristiano Ronaldo’s 2010 hush-money settlement in Las Vegas rape case
- Kathryn Mayorga claims Cristiano Ronaldo sexually assaulted her in his Las Vegas hotel suite in 2009
- On Tuesday, Mayorga, who is looking for the footballer to pay millions of dollars, has her appeal rejected
A US Court of Appeals sided with Cristiano Ronaldo on Tuesday, rejecting an appeal by the lawyer for a woman trying to force the international football star to pay millions more than the US$375,000 in hush money he paid her after she accused him of raping her in 2009.
Kathryn Mayorga’s lawyer had asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a federal judge’s dismissal of the case in Las Vegas in June 2022 and reopen the civil lawsuit she filed in 2018.
They argued US District Judge Jennifer Dorsey should not have rejected Mayorga’s attempts to unseal and make public the confidentiality agreement she signed in 2010 in accepting payments from Ronaldo.
A three-judge panel of the San Francisco-based appellate court disagreed. It also rejected their argument that the judge abused her discretion by dismissing the case with prejudice, which prevented Mayorga from refiling the case, and took the unusual step of levying a US$335,000 fine against her lawyer, Leslie Mark Stovall.
“The District Court clearly recognised the gravity of dismissing the case and accordingly provided a thorough analysis, amply supported by factual findings,” Judge Johnnie Rawlinson wrote in Tuesday’s six-page opinion.
Ronaldo is one of the most recognisable and richest athletes in the world. He leads his home country Portugal’s national team and has played for the Spanish team Real Madrid, the Italian club Juventus and Manchester United in England. He now plays for the Saudi Arabian professional team Al Nassr.