Cristiano Ronaldo: 'I firmly deny the accusations being issued against me'

A.J. Perez USA TODAY

Published 11:39 AM EDT Oct 3, 2018

Cristiano Ronaldo said he “firmly” denies the sexual assault accusation made in a lawsuit filed in Las Vegas last week, adding he has “clear" conscience.

The statement sent to USA TODAY Sports and posted to Ronaldo's official Twitter account Wednesday morning was the first to the news media since Kathryn Mayorga filed a lawsuit against Ronaldo and his representatives over an assault that allegedly took place inside a Las Vegas hotel room in 2009.

Ronaldo, who currently plays for the Italian club Juventus F.C., called the allegations in the civil suit filed in the Clark County (Nev.) District Court “fake news” on social media over the weekend.

“I firmly deny the accusations being issued against me,” Ronaldo said in Wednesday’s statement. “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 conscious will thereby allow me to await with tranquillity the results of any and all investigations.”

A Las Vegas police spokesperson told USA TODAY Sports earlier this week that it had reopened an investigation at Mayorga’s request. Mayorga reported she had been sexually assaulted to police hours after the alleged incident on June 13, 2009, and underwent a sexual abuse examination.

Mayorga, however, did not name a suspect at the time and chose not to pursue the case –– something her lawyer alleged in Friday’s lawsuit was largely due to the actions by Ronaldo’s representatives that led to a $375,000 settlement in the case.

"Cristiano Ronaldo and the ‘team’ (of fixers) knowing that the plaintiff was a vulnerable person suffering severe emotional injuries ... repeatedly threatened to falsely and publicly accuse the plaintiff of consenting to sexual intercourse with the defendant in order to accuse the defendant of sexual assault to obtain money," attorney Leslie Mark Stovall wrote in the lawsuit.

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