Las Vegas police investigating a rape allegation against Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo have sent a warrant to authorities in Italy requesting a sample of the Portuguese football superstar’s DNA.
“The LVMPD is taking the same steps in this case as in any other sexual assault to facilitate the collection of DNA evidence,” Officer Laura Meltzer said. “We can confirm that an official request has been submitted to Italian authorities.”
The Wall Street Journal reported police sent the warrant to a court in Italy, where Ronaldo plays for famed club Juventus.
The Journal reported investigators want to see whether Ronaldo’s DNA matches DNA found on Kathryn Mayorga’s dress
Mayorga has said in a lawsuit that Ronaldo raped her in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2009 while she repeatedly screamed no. After Mayorga filed suit, police reopened a criminal investigation into the case, which includes results of a medical exam.
“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,” Ronaldo’s attorney Peter S. Christiansen said Thursday.
Mayorga went to police eight years ago
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Aden Ocampo-Gomez said in October that in 2009 Mayorga made a complaint but did not provide an assailant’s name or the location of the alleged assault.
She wanted only to report a sexual assault and submit to a medical exam, he said.
Investigators did not follow up with Mayorga and the case was closed shortly thereafter, he said. But the evidence, including images and other information from the exam, is still with police. The case was reopened at the request of Mayorga or someone representing her, Ocampo-Gomez said in October.
Las Vegas police did not comment on Thursday.
Mayorga’s lawsuit accuses Ronaldo, 33, and his camp of taking advantage of her fragile emotional state to coerce her into signing a settlement and nondisclosure agreement in 2009. She claims she received US$375,000 in exchange for her silence. Her lawsuit seeks to void the settlement and agreement.
In October, Ronaldo said he was not a rapist.
“I firmly deny the accusations being issued against me,” Ronaldo wrote on Twitter. “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 conscience will thereby allow me to await with tranquility the results of any and all investigations.”