Cristiano Ronaldo’s lawyer has confirmed that police in Las Vegas have issued a warrant for a DNA sample from the football star.
US police are investigating claims that the Juventus forward raped then-model Kathryn Mayorga at a hotel in Las Vegas in 2009. The 33-year-old Portugal captain has denied the allegations.
In a statement sent to the BBC, Ronaldo’s lawyer Peter S. Christiansen said the DNA sample was a “very standard request”.
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The Guardian reports that Mayorga’s lawyers, Leslie Mark Stovall and Larissa Drohobyczer, had previously been unaware of the DNA warrant.
Christiansen’s statement read: “Mr Ronaldo has always maintained, as he does today, that what occurred in Las Vegas in 2009 was consensual in nature, so it is not surprising that DNA would be present, nor that the police would make this very standard request as part of their investigation.”
Speaking about the case in October last year, Ronaldo said: “I firmly deny the accusations being issued against me. Rape is an abominable crime that goes against everything that I am and believe in.
“Keen as I may be to clear my name, I refuse to feed the media spectacle created by people seeking to promote themselves at my expense.
“My clear conscious [sic] will thereby allow me to await with tranquillity the results of any and all investigations.”
Non-disclosure agreement
Former model and teacher Mayorga claims the footballer assaulted her at a Las Vegas hotel hours after the pair met at Rain nightclub at the Palms Casino Resort.
According to German newspaper Der Spiegel, Mayorga reported the alleged attack to Las Vegas police shortly after the incident is said to have taken place in Ronaldo’s penthouse suite, but no investigation was launched.
The following year, she signed a non-disclosure agreement regarding the allegation, and months later received a $375,000 (£288,000) out-of-court settlement from Ronaldo, the BBC reports.
However, she went public with her story last year, saying she had been inspired by the #MeToo movement.
Her lawyers are seeking to have the non-disclosure agreement declared null and void, arguing that Mayorga has experienced depression and considered suicide following the alleged assault almost a decade ago.
Ronaldo’s lawyer have said that the non-disclosure agreement was “by no means a confession of guilt”.
