Police in Las Vegas have reopened the sexual assault case reported by Kathryn Mayorga, who alleged in a recent lawsuit that footballer Cristiano Ronaldo had raped her in 2009.
"As of September 2018, the case has been reopened and our detectives are following up on information being provided by the victim. This is an ongoing investigation and no further details will be released at this time,” a police statement said.
Ronaldo had taken to social media over the weekend to address the rape allegations that were recently levelled against him, calling the charge “fake news”.
“No, no, no, no, no. What they said today? Fake, fake news. They want to promote (themselves by using) my name. It’s normal,” Ronaldo had said on an Instagram live session on Sunday.
“They want to be famous by saying my name, but it is part of the job. I am a happy man and all is good,” the Juventus forward added.
Lawyers for the Portuguese athlete said in a statement on Friday they would sue German magazine Der Spiegel after it published "blatantly illegal" accusations by Mayorga. They did not respond to specific questions about the content of the Der Spiegel report.
Der Spiegel's deputy editor-in-chief, Alfred Weinzierl, on Sunday said the magazine stood fully by its story.
"We have worked professionally as journalists, confronted, and laid out the evidence. Schertz claims that this is illegal. We say: It is allowed under Germany's press law," Weinzierl said in a statement to Reuters.
Leslie Stovall, Mayorga's lawyer, said in a statement on Monday that his client wanted to "obtain justice by holding Cristiano Ronaldo accountable for his conduct."
The lawsuit, which seeks more than $200,000 in damages, names as defendants Ronaldo and an unnamed team of fixers described as "personal reputation protection specialists" hired to make the situation go away.
Mayorga told Der Spiegel she no longer felt bound by the non-disclosure agreement as she suffers from the consequences of the night nine years ago.
Ronaldo has been named player of the year five times and transferred to Juventus from Real Madrid this summer for 100 million euros ($116 million). The Italian club declined to comment on the Der Spiegel report on Friday.
(With Reuters inputs)
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