CNN
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Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo was on Tuesday reimbursed over $300,000 for authorized charges he spent whereas defending himself in a federal civil case alleging he had raped a woman in a Las Vegas resort room in 2009.
The case was dismissed in June, after the decide discovered that the plaintiff’s lawyer engaged in misconduct so extreme that it might be unimaginable for Ronaldo to have a good trial.
US District Choose Jennifer Dorsey dominated the lawyer representing the accuser Kathryn Mayorga, Leslie Stovall, pay Ronaldo $334,637.50. The court docket discovered Stovall owed the cash after the lawyer was judged to have harmed the footballer by way of “bad-faith lawyering.”
Ronaldo’s authorized crew had sought extra compensation, however Dorsey concluded Ronaldo and his attorneys had dragged the case on longer than obligatory.
The case was dismissed with prejudice, that means Mayorga can not refile the criticism.
Mayorga stated she was coerced into signing a non-disclosure settlement and $375,000 settlement following the alleged rape, which Ronaldo has maintained was a consensual sexual encounter. Mayorga had requested a decide to void that settlement.
The existence of the settlement was first reported by the German newspaper Der Spiegel in 2017 utilizing leaked confidential communications from Ronaldo’s attorneys.
Final 12 months, a court docket discovered that Stovall reached out to the supply of that leak to request these paperwork, together with “the reporting and communications of the attorneys and investigators representing and defending Ronaldo following the sexual assault via the negotiations and conclusion of the settlement and non-disclosure settlement.”
“Stovall’s repeated use of stolen, privileged paperwork to prosecute this case has each indicia of bad-faith conduct,” Choose Dorsey wrote on Friday.
The decide discovered that “the misappropriated paperwork and their confidential contents have been woven into the very material of Mayorga’s claims,” stating that merely placing the leaked paperwork from the case and disqualifying Stovall wouldn’t adequately deal with the misconduct.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Division reopened a felony investigation at Mayorga’s request in August 2018. In July 2019, the Clark County District Lawyer’s Workplace introduced they might not pursue felony costs, saying the allegations couldn’t be confirmed past an inexpensive doubt.
