Nevada judge almost unseals soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo rape case documents

A Las Vegas police report compiled a decade after a woman first made a 2009 rape complaint against international soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo almost became public by mistake before a Nevada judge backtracked and kept it sealedClark County District Court Judge Jasmin LillySpells decided to at least temporarily follow a federal court order shielding from public view the results of the police investigation a confidentiality agreement with the alleged rape victim and allegedly stolen records of attorneyclient discussions between Ronaldo and his lawyersThe court is ordering that the temporary seal remain LillySpells said inviting written arguments by Sept 6 from attorneys for Ronaldo the woman Kathryn Mayorga the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and the Las Vegas ReviewJournal newspaperMayorga went to Las Vegas police after the June 2009 encounter but the criminal investigation was dropped because she neither identified her alleged attacker by name nor said where the incident took place police and prosecutors saidPolice reopened the rape investigation after Mayorga filed a civil lawsuit against Ronaldo in 2018 But Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson declined to pursue criminal charges saying too much tie had passed to prove the case to a jury beyond a reasonable doubtAlso Read We want Cristiano Ronaldo to stay Manchester United coach Erik ten HagOn Tuesday the judge rejected a request by Las Vegas police to rule whether the department could be sued by Ronaldo for damages if it released the records The documents were not made part of the court public recordAs part of that ruling LillySpells declared that several other pending items were moot including a temporary order keeping the disputed documents sealed pending a hearing As arguments stretched into the afternoon the judge acknowledged and corrected the errorYet to be decided is whether the documents should be released under Nevada state public records law after Mayorga and her lawyers lost a US District Court case challenging the validity of a hushmoney confidentiality agreement that paid Mayorga 375000 in 2010The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they are victims of sexual assault But Mayorga gave consent through her attorneys be named in news reportsThe New York Times began a fight to release the records in federal court and the ReviewJournal took up the battle in state court Attorney Margaret McLetchie has represented both newspapersRonaldos lawyers led by Peter Christiansen and Kendelee Works have fought at every turn of a fouryear legal battle to prevent the documents from becoming publicMayorgas attorney Leslie Mark Stovall has sought to release them at times attaching them to court filings before Ronaldos lawyers took quick legal action to keep them sealedUS District Judge Jennifer Dorsey in June dismissed Mayorgas civil lawsuit which had been moved in 2019 to federal court where Stovall sought at least 25 million more in damages from Ronaldo plus attorney feesStovall has appealed Dorseys dismissal of the case to the 9th US Court of Appeals in San FranciscoMayorgas lawyers allege that Ronaldo or his associates violated the confidentiality agreement before a German news outlet Der Spiegel published an article in April 2017 titled Cristiano Ronaldos Secret based on documents obtained from what court filings called whistleblower portal Football LeaksRonaldos lawyers argue the Football Leaks documents and the confidentiality agreement are the product of privileged attorneyclient discussions and there is no guarantee they are authenticTheyre also asking Dorsey to order Stovall to pay more than 626000 in court costs and fees to punish him for what Dorsey in a scathing commentary labeled badfaith conduct by a court officer and the improper use of leaked and stolen documents to pursue Mayorgas caseThe fact that he wasnt the original thief adds no element of innocence to his calculated expropriation of documents from a third party without concern for their obviously privileged and confidential nature or the suspicious circumstances surrounding them the judge wroteMayorga is a former model and teacher who lives in the Las Vegas area Her lawsuit said she met Ronaldo at a nightclub and went with him and other people to his hotel suite where she alleged he assaulted her in a bedroom She was 25 at the time He was 24Ronaldos legal team does not dispute Ronaldo met Mayorga and they had sex in June 2009 but maintains it was consensualRonaldo now 37 is one of the most highly paid and recognizable sports stars in the world He plays for the English Premier League club Manchester United and has captained the national team of his home country Portugal He played in recent years in Italy for the Turinbased club JuventusThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday 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