Cristiano Ronaldo's DNA found on evidence obtained from rape accuser: leaked emails
Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo’s DNA was found in samples collected from his rape accuser, UK tabloid The Sun reports, based on leaked emails it says it obtained.
Also in the leaked emails, according to The Sun: the soccer player told his lawyers that the woman told him "no" and "stop" during an alleged Las Vegas encounter.
Ronaldo, 33, was accused by American model of raping her inside a Vegas hotel room after a night out at a club inside the Palms Casino Resort in June 2009. Clark County prosecutors in Nevada declined to charge Ronaldo in July after re-opening an investigation into the incident.
"DNA is back and is a match," Las Vegas detective Jeffrey Guyer wrote in one of 100 pages of emails, according to The Sun.
The woman had claimed the football star invited her up to his hotel suite, and that when she was changing into a bathing suit, he walked into the bathroom and exposed himself.
Juventus' Cristiano Ronaldo controls the ball during a Serie A soccer match between Juventus and Bologna, at the Allianz stadium in Turin, Italy, Saturday, Oct.19, 2019. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
"He starts to do stuff and touch and grab me. I pushed him away and kept saying 'No,'" she told German news outlet Der Spiegel in September 2018. "I turned away from him and curled up into a ball. That's when he jumped on me. I said, 'No, no, no, no.'"
She went to police the next day, at which point investigators took DNA samples and interviewed her for hours.
In January 2010, she received a settlement of £290,000, or just over $375,000, and signed a non-disclosure agreement. But following her revelations to Der Spiegel, authorities re-opened the investigation in October 2018, for roughly 11 months before prosecutors opted not to pursue criminal charges, The Sun reported.
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In a series of tweets posted at the time, Ronaldo vehemently denied the unearthed claims, and his U.S. attorney Peter Christiansen said: "Mr. Ronaldo has maintained 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."
Neither Christiansen nor Mayorga's attorney, Leslie Stovall immediately responded to FOX Business' request for comment.
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Mayorga is now pursuing a civil case against the world-renowned athlete, seeking just over $184,000 in damages, according to The Sun.