LAS VEGAS: A Nevada woman has lost her bid in a US court to force international soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo to pay millions of dollars more than the $375,000 in hush money she received after claiming he raped her in Las Vegas in 2009.
US District Judge Jennifer Dorsey in Las Vegas kicked the case out of court on Friday to punish the woman’s attorney, Leslie Mark Stovall, for “bad-faith conduct” and the use of leaked and stolen documents detailing attorney-client discussions between Ronaldo and his lawyers. Dorsey said that tainted the case beyond redemption.
Dorsey said in her 42-page order that dismissing a case outright with no option to file it again is a severe sanction, but said Ronaldo had been harmed by Stovall’s conduct.
“I find that the procurement and continued use of these documents was bad faith, and simply disqualifying Stovall will not cure the prejudice to Ronaldo because the misappropriated documents and their confidential contents have been woven into the very fabric of (plaintiff Kathryn) Mayorga’s claims,” the ruling said. “Harsh sanctions are merited.”
Stovall did not immediately respond Saturday to telephone and email messages. Text messages to associate Larissa Drohobyczer were not answered. They could appeal the decision to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
Ronaldo’s attorney in Las Vegas, Peter Christiansen, was traveling and was not immediately reachable for comment.
The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they are victims of sexual assault, but Mayorga gave consent through Stovall and Drohobyczer to make her name public.
Dorsey had signaled earlier this year that she was ready to end the case after Stovall failed to meet a procedural deadline in his bid for more than $25 million in damages based on allegations that Ronaldo or his associates violated a 2010 confidentiality agreement by letting reports about it appear in European publications in 2017.
Mayorga’s civil lawsuit — filed in 2018 in state court and moved in 2019 to federal court — alleged that Ronaldo or his associates violated the confidentiality agreement before the German news outlet Der Spiegel published an article titled “Cristiano Ronaldo’s Secret” based on documents obtained from “whistleblower portal Football Leaks.”
Ronaldo’s legal team blamed the reports on electronic data leaks of documents hacked from law firms and other entities in Europe and put up for sale. Christiansen alleged also that information was altered or fabricated.
Christiansen and attorney Kendelee Works in Las Vegas successfully fought since the case emerged in 2018 to prevent the pact from disclosure.
Mayorga is a former model and teacher who lives in the Las Vegas area. Her lawsuit said she met Ronaldo at a nightclub and went with him and other people to his hotel suite, where she alleged he assaulted her in a bedroom. She was 25 at the time. He was 24.
Ronaldo’s legal team does not dispute Ronaldo met Mayorga and they had sex in June 2009, but maintained it was consensual and not rape.
Mayorga went to Las Vegas police at the time, but the investigation was dropped because Mayorga neither identified her alleged attacker by name nor said where the incident took place, police and prosecutors said.
Ronaldo, now 37, is one of the most highly paid and recognizable sports stars in the world. He plays for the English Premier League club Manchester United and has captained the national team of his home country, Portugal. He spent several recent years playing in Italy for the Turin-based club Juventus.
Las Vegas police reopened their rape investigation after Mayorga’s lawsuit was filed, but Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson decided in 2019 not to pursue criminal charges.
Wolfson, the elected public prosecutor in Las Vegas, said too much time had passed and evidence failed to show that Mayorga’s accusation could be proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.
Stovall maintained that Mayorga didn’t break the hush-money settlement. Her lawsuit sought to void it, accusing Ronaldo and reputation-protection “fixers” of conspiracy, defamation, breach of contract, coercion and fraud. In documents filed last year, Stovall tallied damages at $25 million plus attorney fees.
The attorney argued that Mayorga had learning disabilities as a child and was so pressured by Ronaldo’s attorneys and representatives that she was in no condition to consent to dropping her criminal complaint and accepting the $375,000 in August 2010.
Dorsey followed recommendations from US Magistrate Judge Daniel Albregts, who handled preliminary and procedural rulings in the case, that it be dismissed for bad faith, “inappropriate conduct” by Stovall and reliance on the leaked and stolen confidential documents.
“There is no possible way for this case to proceed where the court cannot tell what arguments and testimony are based on these privileged documents,” Albregts said in an October 2021 report to Dorsey.
Stovall “acted in bad faith by asking for, receiving, and using the Football Leaks documents to prosecute Mayorga’s case,” Albregts wrote. He blamed Stovall for “audacious,” “impertinent” and “abusive” attempts to make the confidentiality agreement public through legal maneuvers and the court record and recommended to Dorsey that she reject Stovall’s claim that Mayorga lacked the mental capacity to sign the 2010 agreement.
The 9th Circuit ruled early this year that it would be up to Dorsey to decide that question.
It was not immediately clear in Dorsey’s ruling whether the public might still get a look at the Las Vegas police report compiled about Ronaldo after Mayorga filed her lawsuit in 2018.
Albregts said in March that denying the New York Times access to what police collected “would almost certainly raise the ‘specter of government censorship.’” He recommended that Dorsey transfer to a state court the newspaper’s open-records request for documents.
A protective order that Dorsey imposed to prevent the release of the 2010 agreement doesn’t apply to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Albregts found, and “does not bar LVMPD from disseminating its criminal investigative file.”
Attorney Margaret McLetchie, representing the newspaper, did not immediately respond Saturday to a message about that case.
US judge dismisses Cristiano Ronaldo rape lawsuit in Vegas
https://arab.news/2mt5s
US judge dismisses Cristiano Ronaldo rape lawsuit in Vegas
- US district judge in Las Vegas kicked the case out of court on Friday to punish the woman’s attorney for “bad-faith conduct”
- Dorsey said in her 42-page order that dismissing a case outright with no option to file it again is a severe sanction
Paris students end Gaza war protests after street fight as New York campus protesters vow to continue anti-war camp
- The Paris protesters called off their action in return for an “internal debate” about the Sciences Po’s ties to Israel
- In New York, Columbia University students said they decided to fight on after reaching an impasse with administrators
PARIS/NEW YORK: Students at one of France’s most prestigious universities on Friday called off protests over the Gaza war after street scuffles between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli groups.
Administrators at the Institute of Political Studies, or Sciences Po, university in Paris acted to douse mounting tensions at the Paris establishment as demonstrations spread across American universities over the impact of the Gaza war.
Pro-Palestinian students have staged several days of sit-ins and protests at the 150-year-old university. Some blocked entrances to the university and tents were set up at the central courtyard for a protest camp.
Hundreds of students turned out Friday and police moved in when about 50 pro-Israeli demonstrators arrived shouting and scuffles started.
With exams scheduled to start soon, the university said the pro-Palestinian students had agreed to call off their action in return for an “internal debate” about the university’s ties to Israel.
University authorities also agreed to drop all disciplinary proceedings against demonstrators, said a note sent to students and faculty by Jean Basseres, Sciences Po’s administrator.
Science Po has a joint degree program with New York’s Columbia University and several French students are taking part in protests at one of the US institutions most radicalized by protests.
By Friday night, the Paris protests had eased and the street outside was calm, according to an AFP reporter on the scene.
Protest leaders, who had demanded a study of Science Po’s partnerships with universities or institutions that support the Israeli government, said they were happy with the promise of an internal debate.
France is home to the world’s largest Jewish population after Israel and the United States, as well as Europe’s biggest Muslim community.
The war in Gaza began with an attack by Palestinian militants Hamas on Israel on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of around 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
In retaliation, Israel launched a military offensive that has killed at least 34,305 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
US campus unrest
In New York, Columbia University students who inspired pro-Palestinian demonstrations across the country said that they reached an impasse with administrators and intend to continue their encampment until their demands are met.
The announcement after two days of exhaustive negotiations came as Columbia’s president faced harsh criticism from faculty and puts more pressure on university officials to find a resolution ahead of graduation ceremonies next month — a problem that campuses from California to Massachusetts are facing.
As the death toll mounts in the war in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis worsens, protesters at universities across the country are demanding that schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies they say are enabling the conflict. Some Jewish students say the protests have veered into antisemitism and made them afraid to set foot on campus.
Student negotiators representing the Columbia encampment said that after meetings Thursday and Friday, the university had not met their primary demand for divestment, although there was progress on a push for more transparent financial disclosures.
“We will not rest until Columbia divests,” said Jonathan Ben-Menachem, a fourth-year doctoral student.
Columbia officials had said earlier that talks were showing progress.
“We have our demands; they have theirs,” university spokesperson Ben Chang said, adding that if the talks fail, Columbia will have to consider other options.
Meanwhile, Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, faced a significant — but largely symbolic — rebuke from faculty Friday but retained the support of trustees, who have the power to hire or fire the president.
A report by the university senate’s executive committee, which represents faculty, found Shafik and her administration took “many actions and decisions that have harmed Columbia University.” Those included calling in police and allowing students to be arrested without consulting faculty, failing to defend the institution in the face of external pressures, misrepresenting and suspending student protest groups and hiring private investigators.
“The faculty have completely lost confidence in President Shafik’s ability to lead this organization,” said Ege Yumusak, a philosophy lecturer who is part of a faculty team protecting the encampment.
Following the report, the senate passed a resolution that included a task force to monitor how the administration would make corrective changes going forward.
In response, Chang said in the evening that “we are committed to an ongoing dialogue and appreciate the Senate’s constructive engagement in finding a pathway forward.”
Also Friday, student protester Khymani James walked back comments made in an online video in January that recently received new attention. James said in the video that “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and people should be grateful James wasn’t killing them.
“What I said was wrong,” James said in a statement. “Every member of our community deserves to feel safe without qualification.”
Protest organizers said the comments didn’t reflect their values. They declined to describe James’ level of involvement with the demonstration.
Across the country at Arizona State University, protesters pitched tents, including some that police dismantled, and at least one person was handcuffed and taken away.
Police clashed with protesters Thursday at Indiana University, Bloomington, where 34 were arrested; Ohio State University, where about 36 were arrested; and at the University of Connecticut, were one person was arrested.
California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, has been negotiating with students who have been barricaded inside a campus building since Monday, rebuffing an attempt by the police to clear them out. The campus was shut down at least through the weekend.
On the other end of the state, the University of Southern California canceled its May 10 graduation ceremony a day after more than 90 protesters were arrested on campus. The university said it will still host dozens of commencement events, including all the traditional individual school ceremonies.
Elsewhere in New York, about a dozen protesters spent the night in tents and sleeping bags inside a building at the Fashion Institute of Technology. The institute’s museum, which is in the building where the demonstrators set up camp, was closed Friday.
Protesters also stayed overnight at the encampment at George Washington University. Officials said in a statement that those who remained were trespassing on private property and disciplinary actions would be pursued against students involved in the unauthorized demonstrations.
At Emory University in Atlanta, video that circulated widely on social media showed two women who identified themselves as professors being detained, with one of them slammed to the ground by an officer as a second one pushed her chest and face onto a concrete sidewalk.
University President Gregory Fenves said via email that some videos of clashes were “shocking” and he was “horrified that members of our community had to experience and witness such interactions.”
Fenves blamed the campus unrest on “highly organized, outside protesters” who he said arrived in vans, put up tents and took over the quad. But in an earlier statement, school officials said that 20 of the 28 people arrested were members of the university community.
Since the Israel-Hamas war began, the US Education Department has launched civil rights investigations into dozens of universities and schools in response to complaints of antisemitism or Islamophobia. Among those under investigation are many colleges facing protests, including Harvard and Columbia.
China to host Hamas, Fatah for Palestinian unity talks
- Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry
BEIJING/CAIRO: China will host Palestinian unity talks between Islamist militant group Hamas and its rivals Fatah, the two groups and a Beijing-based diplomat said on Friday, a notable Chinese foray into Palestinian diplomacy amid the war in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas, which controls Gaza, is the group whose fighters stormed into Israeli towns on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing 253 hostages. Israel has sworn to annihilate Hamas in an onslaught that has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians.
Fatah is the movement of Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli occupied West Bank.
The two rival Palestinian factions have failed to heal their political disputes since Hamas fighters expelled Fatah from Gaza in a short war in 2007. Washington is wary of moves to reconcile the two groups, as it supports the PA but has banned Hamas as terrorists.
A Fatah official told Reuters a delegation, led by the group’s senior official Azzam Al-Ahmed, had left for China. A Hamas official said the faction’s team for the talks, led by senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk, would be flying there later on Friday.
“We support strengthening the authority of the Palestinian National Authority, and support all Palestinian factions in achieving reconciliation and increasing solidarity through dialogue and consultation,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin at a regular briefing on Friday, without confirming the meeting.
The visit will be the first time a Hamas delegation is publicly known to have gone to China since the start of the war in Gaza. A Chinese diplomat, Wang Kejian, met Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Qatar last month, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.
The Beijing-based diplomat, who had been briefed on the matter, said the talks aimed to support efforts to reconcile the two Palestinian rival groups.
China has lately demonstrated growing diplomatic influence in the Middle East, where it enjoys strong ties with Arab nations and Iran. Last year, Beijing brokered a breakthrough peace deal between longstanding regional foes Saudi Arabia and Iran.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he discussed with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other officials in Beijing on Friday how China can play a constructive role in global crises, including the Middle East.
Chinese officials have ramped up advocacy for the Palestinians in international forums in recent months, calling for a larger-scale Israeli-Palestinian peace conference and a specific timetable to implement a two-state solution.
In February, Beijing urged the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to give its opinion on the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories, which it said was illegal.
More recently, China has been pushing for Palestine to join the United Nations, which Beijing’s top diplomat Wang Yi said last week would “rectify a prolonged historical injustice.” (Reporting by Nidal Al-Mughrabi and Laurie Chen in Beijing Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah Writing by Nidal Al-Mughrabi Editing by Peter Graff)
Somalia detains US-trained commandos over theft of rations
- The US agreed in 2017 to help train and equip the 3,000-strong Danab to act as a quick-reaction strike force against Al-Shabab
MOGADISHU: Somalia’s government said it had suspended and detained several members of an elite, US-trained commando unit for stealing rations donated by the US, adding that it was taking over responsibility for provisioning the force.
The Danab unit has been a key pillar of US-backed efforts to combat the Al-Qaeda-linked militant group Al-Shabab. The US agreed in February to spend more than $100 million to build up to five military bases for Danab.
Somalia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that it had notified international partners of the theft and would share the outcome of its investigation.
A US official said in a statement to Reuters that Washington takes all corruption accusations seriously.
“We look forward to engaging with the Danab on creating the necessary safeguards and accountability measures to prevent future incidents that could affect future assistance,” the official said, without directly addressing whether any US support had already been suspended.
The US agreed in 2017 to help train and equip the 3,000-strong Danab to act as a quick-reaction strike force against Al-Shabab.
The group has been waging an insurgency against the central government since 2006.
Danab has been heavily involved in a military offensive by the Somali military and allied clan militias since 2022 that initially succeeded in wresting swaths of territory from Al-Shabab in central Somalia.
However, the campaign has lost momentum, with the government-allied forces struggling to hold rural areas and Al-Shabab continuing to stage large-scale attacks, including in the capital Mogadishu.
Washington suspended some defense assistance to Somalia in 2017 after the military could not account for food and fuel.
The US also conducts frequent drone strikes targeting Al-Shabab militants.
Kenya flood death toll since March climbs to 70
- Tanzania Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said on Thursday that more than 200,000 people had been affected by the disaster, with 155 fatalities and 236 people injured
NAIROBI: The number of people killed in floods in Kenya due to heavier than usual rainfall since the start of the monsoon in March has risen to 70, a government spokesperson said on Friday.
In recent weeks, Kenya and other countries in East Africa — a region highly vulnerable to climate change — have been pounded by heavier-than-usual rainfall compounded by the El Nino weather pattern.
El Nino is a naturally occurring climate pattern typically associated with increased heat worldwide, leading to drought in some parts of the world and heavy rains elsewhere.
BACKGROUND
Kenyans have been warned to stay on alert, with the forecast for more heavy rains across the country in the coming days as the monsoon batters East Africa.
“The official tally of fellow Kenyans who regrettably have lost their lives due to the flooding situation now stands at 70 lives,” government spokesperson Isaac Mwaura said on X after torrential rains killed more than a dozen people in the capital, Nairobi, this week.
Mwaura said the government would issue a “comprehensive brief” following a meeting with the national emergency response committee after the extreme weather caused chaos across Nairobi this week, blocking roads and engulfing homes in slum districts. Kenyans have been warned to stay on alert, with the forecast for more heavy rains across the country in the coming days as the monsoon batters East Africa.
At least 155 people have died in neighboring Tanzania due to flooding and landslides.
Tanzania Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said on Thursday that more than 200,000 people had been affected by the disaster, with 155 fatalities and 236 people injured.
He said homes, property, crops, and infrastructure such as roads, bridges, railways, and schools had been damaged or destroyed.
In Burundi, one of the poorest countries on the planet, around 96,000 people have been displaced by months of relentless rains, the United Nations and the government said this month.
Meanwhile, the UN humanitarian response agency, OCHA, said in an update this week that in Somalia, the seasonal Gu rains from April to June are intensifying, with flash floods reported since April 19.
It said four people had been reportedly killed and more than 800 people affected or displaced nationwide.
Uganda has also suffered heavy storms that have caused riverbanks to burst, with two fatalities confirmed and several hundred villagers displaced.
Late last year, more than 300 people died in torrential rains and floods in Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia, just as the region was trying to recover from its worst drought in four decades that left millions of people hungry.
From October 1997 to January 1998, massive flooding caused more than 6,000 deaths in five countries in the region.
Jewish campaign group led by Gideon Falter cancels London march over safety concerns
- The Campaign Against Antisemitism says safety concerns forced it to call off its “Walk Together” march after receiving threats from ‘hostile actors’
- Last weekend, a video appeared to show police prevent ‘openly Jewish’ Falter from walking near a pro-Palestine protest but a longer version of the footage painted a different picture
LONDON: The organizers of a march in protest against antisemitism, planned for Saturday in London, “reluctantly” announced on Friday that they were canceling the demonstration.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism said it was forced by safety concerns to call off its “Walk Together” march, which was scheduled to coincide with the latest in a series of pro-Palestine marches in the British capital. The organization said it had expected thousands of people to take part but threats from “hostile actors” posed a safety risk.
“We have received numerous threats and our monitoring has identified hostile actors who seem to have intended to come to any meeting locations that we announced,” the CAA said.
“The risk to the safety of those who wished to walk openly as Jews in London tomorrow as part of this initiative has therefore become too great.
“We are no less angry about these marches than our Jewish community and its allies. We want to walk.”
The group added that it wants the Metropolitan Police not only to “manage marches” but “police” them.
Last weekend, a video that circulated on social media sparked controversy as it showed a confrontation between the CAA’s chief executive, Gideon Falter, and a Metropolitan Police officer who appeared to be preventing him from crossing the road in the vicinity of a pro-Palestine march in London because he was “openly Jewish” and his presence was “antagonizing.”
Falter, who was threatened with arrest if he did not leave the area, criticized the police for their actions during the incident and claimed there were now “no-go zones for Jews” in London amid a rise in antisemitic sentiment arising from Israel’s war on Gaza following the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas.
Police chiefs apologized twice for the officer’s choice of words. However, a former senior police officer said on Monday that the initial, short version of the video most people saw online “did not fully represent the situation.”
A longer version showed the officer expressing concern about Falter’s actions because he appeared to be deliberately attempting to provoke the pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
