Police in Las Vegas have issued a warrant for the DNA of Cristiano Ronaldo. According to the Wall Street Journal, the warrant comes after authorities found DNA on the dress of a woman who accused the soccer star of rape.
The incident occurred in 2009 when then 24-year-old Ronaldo met Kathryn Mayorga in Vegas' Rain nightclub. He invited Mayorga back to his suite and, according to a lawsuit filed against Ronaldo in 2018, sexually assaulted her. The complaint says that "when Cristiano Ronaldo completed the sexual assault of the plaintiff, he allowed her to leave the bedroom stating he was sorry, he was usually a gentleman.”
Mayorga filed the lawsuit against Ronaldo last year, saying he coerced her into a non-disclosure agreement in exchange for $375,000. When that lawsuit became public, the Las Vegas PD reopened her case. Though the alleged assault was reported on the day it happened by Mayorga, there is no clock the accuser is up against. Nevada has no statute of limitations on sexual assault cases.
According to the WSJ, police have sent the warrant to Italy, where Ronaldo currently plays for the Turin club Juventus. Italian authorities are expected to gather the DNA from Ronaldo and send it back to the United States for testing. TMZ reports that Ronaldo plans to cooperate with authorities completely and provide a DNA sample.
Last October, Ronaldo's lawyer Peter S. Christiansen said that what happened between Maorga and Ronaldo was consensual. “Mr. Ronaldo has always maintained, as he does today, that what occurred in 2009 in Las Vegas was consensual in nature,” Christiansen said.
