The lawyer for a Las Vegas lady in a dismissed rape declare in opposition to Cristiano Ronaldo has been ordered to pay the soccer famous person $334,637.50 in authorized charges.
Leslie Stovall, left, is on the hook for a bit of Cristiano Ronaldo’s authorized charges after he was decided to have acted in dangerous religion by counting on the Soccer Leaks paperwork. (Picture: BT/NYT/On line casino.org)
Leslie Stovall represented Kathryn Mayorga within the case. Mayorga, who waived her proper to anonymity, claimed she was raped by the Portuguese nationwide in his penthouse on the Palms On line casino Resort in 2009.
However her criticism was dismissed in June final yr after US District Choose Jennifer Dorsey decided Stovall had based mostly the case on leaked, stolen data.
These had been confidential and privileged conversations between Ronaldo and his lawyer that ought to not have been admitted as prosecution proof, Dorsey wrote.
By counting on the paperwork, Stovall acted in dangerous religion, which “harmed Ronaldo” and “misplaced Mayorga her alternative to pursue the case,” Dorsey added.
Lawyer Personally Liable
Following the dismissal, Ronaldo’s lawyer, Peter Christiansen requested Dorsey to make Stovall personally answerable for the $626,000 the soccer participant spent defending the lawsuit.
In paperwork filed to the US District Courtroom for the District of Nevada final week, the choose granted the movement in precept. However she solely awarded a little bit greater than half of the requested quantity as a result of she mentioned Ronaldo and his authorized workforce may have shut the case down earlier.
Even at that early stage of the litigation, it was clear from a quick comparability of Mayorga’s criticism and the leaked paperwork that her allegations had been rooted within the purloined supplies,” she wrote. “However Ronaldo didn’t then search case-terminating sanctions or to disqualify Stovall.
“He proceeded with discovery and waited greater than a yr to maneuver to dismiss,” she added. “So Ronaldo shares at the least a part of the blame for this case dragging on for so long as it did….”
Soccer Leaks
The paperwork in query had been allegedly stolen by the hacktivist Soccer Leaks web site and revealed in October 2018 by German information outlet Der Spiegel.
They included a purported “information-gathering questionnaire” despatched to Ronaldo by his legal professionals shortly after the alleged incident. Within the questionnaire, a person known as “X,” who’s alleged to be Ronaldo, seems to confess to participating in non-consensual intercourse with Mayorga.
Ronaldo’s authorized workforce declare the paperwork had been falsified, and the athlete has all the time denied the allegations.
In 2010, Mayorga signed a non-disclosure settlement (NDA) consenting to drop any declare in opposition to Ronaldo for a $375,000 settlement. Her lawsuit claimed she was “coerced” into signing the NDA by Ronaldo’s authorized fixers at a time when she was “mentally incapacitated.”
Stovall and Mayorga have appealed the case.
