The legal team of Cristiano Ronaldo’s rape accuser have demanded that the soccer icon and his agent Jorge Mendes testify over the payment of hush money.
Former model Kathryn Mayorga claims she was ‘mentally incapacitated’ when she accepted $375,000 as part of an out-of-court settlement with Ronaldo and his representatives following accusations that he raped her in a Las Vegas hotel room.
Mayorga’s attorneys have repeatedly requested to depose the Juventus player and his Portuguese ‘super agent’ Jorge Mendes via zoom, according to new legal documents seen by The Sun.
Ronaldo, from Portugal, strongly denies all allegations made against him.
The legal team of Cristiano Ronaldo’s rape accuser Kathryn Mayorga (right) have demanded that the soccer icon (left) and his agent Jorge Mendes testify over the payment of alleged hush money. Pictured: The night the pair met in Las Vegas in 2009
Mayorga’s lawyer Ross Moynihan has listed ten people he wanted to question in March and April, according to the documents.
But Ronaldo’s attorney in Las Vegas – Kendelee Works – denied the request for her client to be questioned, saying it would be ‘entirely irrelevant to this stage of proceedings,’ The Sun reported.
Both sides’ lawyers had a telephone call on March 30, during which they discussed Ronaldo being questioned, which was denied again.
According to the newspaper, sources close to Ronaldo’s team said that no ‘formal requests’ for deposition had been made by American Mayorga’s representatives.
The football superstar’s lawyers have now filed a motion for a protective order on confidential documents relating to the case.
These documents reportedly include the non-disclosure agreement between the American and Portuguese that was signed in 2010 after Mayorga claimed she was raped by Ronaldo in Palms Casino a year earlier.
Mayorga signed the NDA as part of an out-of-court settlement with Ronaldo, but her lawyers later claimed she had been deemed ‘incompetent’ by a psychiatrist when she made the legal arrangement.
Her lawyers previously claimed that the American was manipulated and pressured by Ronaldo’s team into signing the NDA, and are now withholding permission for vital documents in the case to be kept secret.
Ronaldo’s attorneys claim this has forced them to file the motion for the protective order on the confidential documents.
The athlete’s lawyers stated this ‘is curious given that Defendant specifically offered to agree that Plaintiff’s medical records, including mental health history, would be deemed confidential.
‘Plaintiff’s counseling records contain multiple references to her concerns about confidentiality and the sense her counsel was promoting his own career ahead of her interests.’
In 2010, Mayorga accepted $375,000 in a non-disclosure agreement, but is now pursuing a new claim for more than $210,000 saying she was mentally unfit when she took the first settlement.
Pictured: Portuguese soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo (left) next to his manager and agent Jorge Mendes (right). The pair have both been requested to testify over the payment of alleged hush money to Ronaldo’s rape accuser Kathryn Mayorga
But in the new motion, Ronaldo’s team have produced two exhibits, which purport to show the former model had previously been subscribed Xanax for anxiety and panic attacks.
They have also released a redacted handwritten letter from Mayorga, penned on January 2019, saying that she was hated by ‘millions on people’ and wished to remain anonymous, but that her attorney had spoken to the press.
‘I’m upset that my attys (attorneys) talked in the media… I was upset when I learned from the media, not him… I think he’s promoting his career, not my case – victim’s names are protected for a reason – she’s getting: ‘You slut, whore, etc’ – millions of people hate me,’ she wrote in the letter, according to The Sun.
To prove claims that Mayorga was ‘mentally incapacitated’ when she made the out of court settlement, her lawyers have produced a list of 16 medical provider, psychiatric experts and psychological counsellors to back them up.
The MailOnline has requested comment from Cristiano Ronaldo’s representatives, and Jorge Mendes.
The model-turned-teacher claimed the football star raped her in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2009 after the pair met on a night out, and then agreed to go back to his hotel room.
American model-turned-teacher Mayorga claimed the football star raped her in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2009 after the pair met on a night out (pictured) in the city
In 2019, the Juventus star was told that he will not face charges after police failed to find enough evidence to prosecute.
In July 2019 Clark County District Attorney’s Office announced that it wouldn’t prosecute the alleged attack, which was reported to police on June 13 in 2009.
They said officers who attended the hotel on that day could not ‘conduct any meaningful investigation’ because the woman refused to identify an attacker and would not say where she had been assaulted.
‘Without knowing the identity of the perpetrator or the location of the crime, detectives were unable to search for and impound vital forensic evidence,’ the prosecutors said.
‘In addition, video evidence, showing interactions between the victim and perpetrator before and after the alleged crime, was lost. The criminal investigation was closed.’
But Mayorga is pressing ahead with a civil case which seeks to nullify a non-disclosure agreement she signed with the athlete in 2010.
She claims his legal team exploited her vulnerable mental state in order to get her to sign the document.
Left: Cristiano Ronaldo of Juventus looks over his shoulder during the Serie A match between Juventus and Genoa CFC at Allianz Stadium on April 11, 2021 in Turin, Italy. Right: Levendi brand ambassador Kathryn Mayorga attends the Las Vegas Food & Wine Festival at the Red Rock Casino, Resort and Spa on September 5, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada
In court papers filed in 2019, Ronaldo’s legal team acknowledged for the first time that Mayorga was paid $375,000 at the time she first made the accusations to police in order ‘to maintain the confidentiality of their dispute.’
However, they note that the payment in no way acknowledges guilt, and that in fact ‘the [agreement] made clear Mr. Ronaldo disputed [Mayorga’s] allegations and in no way conceded she was injured.
‘To the contrary, the [agreement] stated in no uncertain terms that Mr. Ronaldo was agreeing to pay [Mayorga] a sum of money in order to maintain the confidentiality of their dispute.’
Ronaldo’s lawyers argue that the previous agreement and Nevada’s statue of limitations make Mayorga’s lawsuit null and void.
They also say she has yet to present any concrete evidence that she ‘lacked mental capacity’ when she signed the NDA.
In 2018, Ronaldo said: ‘I firmly deny the accusations being issued against me. Rape is an abominable crime that goes against everything I am and believe in.’
Pictured: Cristiano Ronaldo with his wife Georgina Rodríguez in their home gym
His mother Dolores has stuck by Ronaldo throughout the months-long investigation, saying in February that she had ‘confidence in my son when it comes to what happened’.
The mother-of-four also hit out at Ronaldo’s American accuser, saying she ‘didn’t go to his hotel room to play cards’.
Ronaldo’s girlfriend, 26-year-old Spanish model Georgina Rodriguez, has also stood by him over the claims.
Police could not conduct ‘any meaningful investigation’ at the time because Ms Mayorga declined to say who assaulted her or where it occurred, U.S. prosecutors said.
As a result, detectives were ‘unable to search for and impound vital forensic evidence,’ and a video showing Ronaldo and Mayorga together was lost, they added.
Mayorga contacted police in August 2018 to ask that the case be reopened, at which point she named Ronaldo as the alleged assailant.
Her lawyers have said she was inspired to speak out and make her claim public by the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment.
While no charges were brought, she launched a civil suit in a bit to over-turn the non-disclosure agreement.
Ronaldo left Spanish team Real Madrid in 2018 after nine seasons with the club, joining Italian champions Juventus.
While in Spain he became Real Madrid’s highest ever goalscorer, netting 451 times after joining from Manchester United for a then-world record £80million in 2009.
He helped Real win three consecutive Champions League titles in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Ronaldo is also Portugal’s most-capped player, with 173 appearances, and record goalscorer, with 103. He earned a reported $105 million in 2019, and was number 4 on the 2020 Forbes Celebrity 100.
