A Nevada court has ended a years-long court case in which a woman accused Cristiano Ronaldo of rape, demanding millions of dollars from the Portuguese who in 2009 had given her $ 375,000 to close the case.
Judge Jennifer Dorsei in Las Vegas closed the case, punishing especially the lawyer of the accuser Catherine Majorga, Leslie Mark Stouall, for having acted maliciously by distributing confidential documentation. According to the judge, this situation tarnished this court case and made it inadmissible.
Dorsei stressed in the 42-page decision that dismissing a case seeking about $ 25 million in damages, without the right to bring him back to court, is a severe punishment, but acknowledged that the lawyer's actions had harmed Ronaldo.
Majorga accuses Ronaldo of sexually assaulting her in 2009, while initially admitting that he had given her $ 375,000 in cash so that the case would not go to court. She then asked that cases be opened against him arguing that he had not been in the best mental condition to make such an agreement. Ronaldo's representatives, meanwhile, had not denied that the two had had sex, but that it had been consensual.
Attorney Stowall is accused of leaking confidential documents to the media in Europe, thus tarnishing the image of Ronaldo, who also claims that some of them are false, an opinion which was shared by the judge in Nevada.