Las Vegas court has acquitted soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo from sexual assault charges, after a woman called, Kathryn Mayorga, accused him of raping her more than 10 years ago, a top prosecutor said on Monday.
The allegations, which were first made in 2009, cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, the office said in a statement.
In a lawsuit still pending in federal court, Mayorga alleges that she was pressured to sign an agreement to keep quiet in exchange for $375,000. Her lawyers want to void the deal and collect at least $200,000 more from Ronaldo.
Ronaldo’s attorneys have acknowledged that the soccer star and Mayorga had consensual sex in June 2009, but they denied it was rape. Attorney Peter Christiansen was travelling Monday and wasn’t immediately available to comment.
Attorneys for Mayorga, a former model and schoolteacher, did not immediately respond to telephone, text and email messages.
Ronaldo plays in Italy for the Turin-based soccer club Juventus. He played previously for Manchester United in England and Real Madrid in Spain, where he earned a then-record sum of 94 million euros, or about $130 million.
Mayorga underwent a medical exam to collect DNA evidence shortly after she alleges Ronaldo assaulted her. Police closed their investigation in 2009 because Mayorga neither identified her attacker by name nor said where the alleged rape took place, said Wolfson, the elected prosecutor in Las Vegas.
Police have said she identified her attacker only as a European soccer player.
“As a result, the police were unable to … conduct any meaningful investigation,” Wolfson said Monday. “Detectives were unable to search for and impound vital forensic evidence. In addition, video evidence, showing interactions between the victim and perpetrator before and after the alleged crime, was lost.”
The investigation was reopened last year at the request of Mayorga’s attorneys, shortly before they sued Ronaldo. She spoke again with police, and authorities this year obtained a sample of Ronaldo’s DNA through Italian authorities.
Police did not immediately respond Monday to messages about the case.
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