Ronaldo won't face criminal charges over rape allegation

Cristiano Ronaldo will not face criminal charges after a woman accused him of raping her in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2009.

Kathryn Mayorga, who detailed her encounter with Ronaldo in an interview with German news magazine Der Spiegel in 2018, said she was paid $375,000 in exchange for her silence after the alleged assault. She contacted Las Vegas police last August, naming Ronaldo as the offender. An investigation was subsequently reopened.

After reviewing that investigation, the Clark County District Attorney's Office said in a statement Monday that the allegations against Ronaldo "cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt" and "no charges will be forthcoming."

According to the statement, police closed their 2009 investigation because Mayorga didn't identify Ronaldo by name and didn't disclose where the alleged incident took place. The district attorney's office also said that video evidence showing interactions between the two both before and after the alleged crime was lost during that initial investigation.

Mayorga said she was inspired to come forward and speak publicly by the #MeToo movement.

Neither Peter Christiansen nor Leslie Mark Stovall - attorneys for Ronaldo and Mayorga, respectively - immediately responded when asked for comment by the Associated Press on Monday. Christiansen has said that Ronaldo and Mayorga had consensual sex when they met in June 2009.

Mayorga has a lawsuit pending against the Juventus footballer in U.S. court, accusing him, or those working for him, of conspiracy, defamation, breach of contract, coercion, and fraud. The lawsuit claims Ronaldo and/or his representative allowed details of a confidential financial settlement with her to become public.

Stovall has said that "fixers" working to protect Ronaldo's reputation pressured Mayorga to accept the aforementioned $375,000 payment.

The lawsuit, filed in Las Vegas, seeks to void the agreement and collect at least $200,000 more from Ronaldo.