Ronaldo lawyers seek US$626K from woman’s lawyer in Vegas case
LAS VEGAS –
Cristiano Ronaldo is asking a U.S. choose to order a lady’s lawyer to pay the worldwide soccer star greater than US$626,000 after claiming in a failed lawsuit searching for tens of millions of {dollars} that Ronaldo raped the girl in Las Vegas almost a decade earlier.
In a bluntly worded courtroom doc, Ronaldo’s lawyer, Peter Christiansen, asks U.S. District Choose Jennifer Dorsey to make the girl’s lawyer, Leslie Mark Stovall, personally chargeable for the quantity.
Stovall didn’t instantly reply Wednesday to phone and electronic mail messages. Textual content messages to affiliate Larissa Drohobyczer weren’t answered. Stovall is because of file a solution with the courtroom by July 8.
Dorsey on June 10 kicked the case out of courtroom to punish Stovall for “bad-faith conduct” and the improper use of leaked and stolen paperwork to pursue the case.
Stovall “crossed the border of moral habits earlier than he filed this motion, and his disregard for the principles of this courtroom has continued unabated,” the choose discovered.
Dorsey mentioned in her 42-page order that dismissing plaintiff Kathryn Mayorga’s case outright with no choice to file it once more was a extreme sanction, however mentioned Ronaldo had been harmed by Stovall’s conduct.
The Related Press usually doesn’t title individuals who say they’re victims of sexual assault, however Mayorga gave consent by way of Stovall and Drohobyczer to make her title public.
The bid for courtroom prices and charges for Ronaldo’s attorneys, filed Friday, dwarfs a $375,000 hush-money cost that Mayorga obtained in 2010 to signal a confidentiality settlement and drop a prison criticism alleging she was sexually assaulted.
“Given Stovall’s abuses and flagrant misconduct, Stovall must be made personally chargeable for guaranteeing Ronaldo is reimbursed for having to defend in opposition to his vexatious and unhealthy religion conduct,” Christiansen’s request for reimbursement mentioned. He tallied lawyer charges at between $350 and $850 per hour for almost 1,200 hours of labor.
Mayorga’s civil lawsuit — filed in 2018 in state courtroom and moved in 2019 to federal courtroom — finally sought greater than $25 million in damages, plus lawyer charges for Stovall.
It alleged that Ronaldo or his associates violated the confidentiality settlement earlier than a German information outlet, Der Spiegel, revealed an article in April 2017 titled “Cristiano Ronaldo’s Secret” primarily based on paperwork obtained from what courtroom filings time period “whistleblower portal Soccer Leaks.”
Ronaldo’s attorneys accuse Stovall of acquiring stolen materials containing privileged attorney-client communication after which making an attempt repeatedly to make them pubic by attaching them to courtroom filings.
A second courtroom submitting on Friday asks Dorsey to seal a part of the courtroom document containing confidential paperwork.
Mayorga is a former mannequin and trainer who lives within the Las Vegas space. Her lawsuit mentioned she met Ronaldo at a nightclub and went with him and different folks to his resort suite, the place she alleged he assaulted her in a bed room. She was 25 on the time. He was 24.
Ronaldo’s authorized workforce doesn’t dispute Ronaldo met Mayorga and so they had intercourse in June 2009, however maintained it was consensual.
Ronaldo, now 37, is likely one of the most extremely paid and recognizable sports activities stars on the planet. He performs for the English Premier League membership Manchester United and has captained the nationwide workforce of his residence nation, Portugal. He spent a number of latest years taking part in in Italy for the Turin-based membership Juventus.
Las Vegas police reopened their rape investigation after Mayorga’s lawsuit was filed in 2018, however Clark County District Legal professional Steve Wolfson determined in 2019 to not pursue prison expenses. He mentioned an excessive amount of time had handed to show the case to a jury past an affordable doubt.
Stovall maintained that Mayorga did not break the hush-money settlement. Her lawsuit sought to void it, accusing Ronaldo and reputation-protection “fixers” of conspiracy, defamation, breach of contract, coercion and fraud.
The Las Vegas police report compiled about Ronaldo after Mayorga filed her lawsuit in 2018 may nonetheless turn into public beneath a courtroom motion pending in state courtroom in Las Vegas.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Division is asking a choose to find out whether or not it has to adjust to a public data request by The New York Occasions. The division argues that no expenses have been filed within the case.
A U.S. Justice of the Peace choose in Las Vegas mentioned in March {that a} protecting order that Dorsey imposed the order to forestall launch of the 2010 settlement doesn’t stop the division from releasing its file.
The Las Vegas Evaluation-Journal is also a part of the case. Legal professional Margaret McLetchie, representing the newspapers, didn’t instantly reply to messages.
