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Lawyers for a woman accusing Cristiano Ronaldo of raping her nine years ago have said that their client has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress and depression, conditions they argue would have made her legally incompetent to reach a non-disclosure agreement.
Kathryn Mayorga did not appear with her lawyers at a news conference in Las Vegas the same day that Ronaldo denied the rape accusations, using Twitter to say he had a "clear conscience" as he awaits results "of any and all investigations".
“I firmly deny the accusations,” he said.
“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.”
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Ms Mayorga's lawyer Larissa Drohobyczer told reporters of a psychiatrist's recent medical opinion, saying: "These (psychological) injuries rendered Kathryn incompetent to participate in the negotiations and settlement and non-disclosure in 2010."
Non-disclosure agreement
The argument previews claims Ms Drohobyczer and law partner Leslie Stovall would make when asking a judge to void the non-disclosure agreement that the lawyers say Ms Mayorga signed while accepting a $375,000 US dollar (€326,000) payment from Ronaldo.
Ms Drohobyczer and Mr Stovall spoke of Ms Mayorga on Wednesday by name. Ms Drohobyczer told the Associated Press on Tuesday that Ms Mayorga gave consent to have her name made public.
A civil lawsuit filed last week in state court also seeks monetary damages that Mr Stovall said could, counting compensatory and punitive damages, amount to many times more than the minimum $200,000 (€174,000) sought under Nevada state law.
Lawyer David Chesnoff in Las Vegas, who was hired on Wednesday by Ronaldo, issued a statement "categorically" denying the allegations and expressing "complete faith in the justice system".
Mr Chesnoff said Las Vegas police investigated Ms Mayorga’s sexual assault claim in 2009 and did not recommend the filing of criminal charges.
Civil lawsuit
The civil lawsuit filed on September 27th in state court in Las Vegas alleges Ronaldo raped Ms Mayorga in his penthouse suite at a Las Vegas hotel and hired a team of what the document called “fixers” to pressure Ms Mayorga to keep quiet.
Earlier this week, the 33-year-old Portuguese player used social media to label the allegation “fake news”.
Ms Drohobyczer acknowledged that Ms Mayorga accepted the money nine years ago because she never wanted her name made public.
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Las Vegas police said they would not be releasing the report that Ms Mayorga filed the day she said she was attacked, because the investigation is open.
Ms Mayorga also was influenced in recent months by the #MeToo movement, Ms Drohobyczer said.
The civil lawsuit in Clark County District Court accuses Ronaldo or those working for him of acts of conspiracy, coercion and fraud, defamation, battery, breach of contract and negligence for allowing details of the confidential settlement to become public. – AP
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