Cristiano Ronaldo's legal battle with a woman who has accused the international football star of abusing her in her suite at a Las Vegas resort for more than 10 years, a federal judge in Nevada has ruled. Is going to trial.
No immediate date was set, but the U.S.
District Judge Jennifer Dorsey said she would listen to the arguments and
decide for herself whether to mentally enter into the 2010 Hushpace Agreement
with Catherine Mayorga Ronaldo’s representatives. Fit who paid 5,375,000 to Mayorga.
Ronaldo's lawyer, Peter Christian,
declined to comment on Tuesday.
Mayorga lawyers, led by Leslie Mark Stovall,
did not immediately respond to emails and telephone messages about the judge's
September 30 ruling.
Dorsey wrote that the court should decide
whether Mayorga lacks the "mental capacity" to sign confidentiality
arrangements with Ronaldo's representatives and "even if an agreement has
ever been reached between the parties ...”
It was not immediately clear whether
Ronaldo or Mayorga would have to appear in court in person at the time of the
trial.
The Associated Press does not usually name
people who say they have been sexually’ abused. But after filing his lawsuit
against Ronaldo in October 2018, Mayorga agreed to identify him through his
lawyers.
Dorsey gave the two sides a chance to
agree on a plan for a bench trial by the end of November.
Christian can appeal to Dorsey's ruling in
the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He declined to say whether he would do
so.
The decision comes as a shock to Ronaldo's
legal representatives, who have so far sealed the details of 2010
settlement. This has led to a backlash from public court questions that the US
Magistrate Judge Daniel Albright said in February were behind closed doors.
U.S. District Judges may dismiss
magistrates who handle court cases and preliminary arguments.
Ronaldo, 35, lives in Portugal and is one
of the richest players in the world. He plays for the Juventus football club
based in Turin, Italy and is the captain of his home country's national team.
Mayorga, 37, is a former teacher and model
who lives in the Las Vegas area. She claims that Ronaldo or his associates
violated the privacy agreement in 2017 by allowing reports about her to appear
in European publications. She is trying to raise at least $200,000 more than
Ronaldo.
Ronaldo's lawyers say media reports were
based’ on electronic data hacked, stolen and sold illegally by cybercriminals.
He says he believes the documents have been tampered with’ and complains that Mayorga’s
case has damaged Ronaldo's reputation.
Mayorga says she met Ronaldo at a
nightclub in 2009 and went to her hotel suite with herself and others, where
her lawsuit alleges she attacked him in the bedroom. She was 25 at the time. He
was 24 years old.
Ronaldo, through his lawyers, talks about
maintaining sex by consensus.
Stovall says Mayorga suffered from a
learning disability as a child, was pressured’ by Ronaldo's representatives and
lacked the legal capacity to sign an undisclosed contract.
The judge, at least for now, refused to
name Mayorga’s brother as his guardian in the case. Dorsey also said that some
disputes can be resolved out of court.
"The court will have to decide
whether Mayorga lacks the mental capacity to agree to a
settlement," Dorsey wrote.
If Mayorga was able to enter into the
agreement, the judge said, it was linked’ to his confidentiality and a
closed-door arbitration decision that the agreement was legal and legitimate.
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