A US appeals court has sided with Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo in a rape case and rejected plaintiff Catherine Mayorga's appeal.
The woman accused Ronaldo, then 24, of sexually assaulting her in a Las Vegas hotel room. The football player, through lawyers, argued that the sexual intercourse was consensual, and in 2010 he agreed with Mayorga and her lawyer to pay compensation in the amount of $335 thousand.
In 2017, the woman's lawyer asked for the award to be increased to $25 million, citing conspiracy, libel, breach of contract, duress and fraud.
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In June 2022, a U.S. District Judge rejected the proposal and was appealed.
Court decision in the Ronaldo case
On November 21, a three-judge panel of a San Francisco court sided with Ronaldo, rejecting Mayorga's lawsuit. They also imposed a fine of $335,000 on her lawyer , which is considered an unusual step in such cases.
The court's decision stated that the case was closed after a thorough analysis, which was supported by factual data.
The judges noted that the parties' settlement lay dormant until 2017, when hundreds of Football Leaks documents were leaked due to a cyber hack.
It is noted that despite the confidentiality between Ronaldo and Mayorga, the woman’s lawyer was looking for profit from Football Leaks.
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Since Mayorga's appeal was not only rejected, but also punished with a large fine for her lawyer, it is unlikely that this case, which has dragged on for more than 14 years, will be reopened any time soon.