Public might get look at Ronaldo police report in sex assault case, says U.S. judge

A federal court in Las Vegas has signalled the public might get a look at a Las Vegas police report compiled about Cristiano Ronaldo after a Nevada woman claimed in 2018 the international soccer star raped her in 2009.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Albregts said in documents filed Friday denying the New York Times access to what police collected "would almost certainly raise the 'spectre of government censorship."'

Albregts recommended that U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey transfer to a state court the newspaper's open-records request for documents so far kept secret under a hush-money agreement the woman, Kathryn Mayorga, signed more than a decade ago.

Albregts said a protective order that Dorsey imposed to prevent the release of the 2010 agreement doesn't apply to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and "does not bar LVMPD from disseminating its criminal investigative file."

Mayorga sued Ronaldo in 2018, saying through her attorneys she was coerced into the settlement, never wanted to be identified publicly and should receive millions of dollars more than the $375,000 US she received from Ronaldo's representatives.

The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they are victims of sexual assault, but Mayorga gave consent through her attorneys, Leslie Mark Stovall and Larissa Drohobyczer, to make her name public.

The lawyers did not immediately respond Tuesday to email and telephone messages about Albregts' recommendation.

Albregts is an appointed magistrate who presides over procedural and pretrial matters.

Dorsey is a federal judge with lifetime tenure who can accept or reject his recommendation.

Albregts, saying the public records dispute should go to state court, cited a U.S. Supreme Court