Warrant Issued for Cristiano Ronaldo's DNA: Source

Las Vegas police reportedly want it for reopened 2009 rape investigation
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 10, 2019 1:55 PM CST
Warrant Issued for Cristiano Ronaldo's DNA: Source
In this Dec. 12, 2018, file photo, Juventus' Cristiano Ronaldo reacts during the Champions League match at the Stade de Suisse in Bern, Switzerland.   (Alessandro della Valle/Keystone via AP, File)

Las Vegas authorities want Cristiano Ronaldo's DNA. After Kathryn Mayorga filed a lawsuit last year alleging the Portuguese soccer star raped her in Vegas in 2009, local police reopened the case, which Mayorga first reported to them on the day of the alleged assault. Now, they have issued a warrant for the athlete's DNA to see if it matches DNA found on the dress Mayorga was wearing on the night in question, a law enforcement source tells the Wall Street Journal. The warrant was sent to the court system in Italy, where Ronaldo plays soccer; the official says once it's served there, authorities will be expected to collect a DNA sample and send it to the US. Mayorga says Ronaldo was in Vegas on vacation in 2009 when the two met at a nightclub and Ronaldo invited her to a party in his suite.

She says he forced himself on her as she pleaded with him to stop, and that afterward, he paid her $375,000 not to disclose what had happened. Ronaldo denies the allegations and has said, through his attorney, that "what occurred in 2009 in Las Vegas was consensual in nature." Neither he nor his team have yet commented on news of the warrant. On Tuesday, another woman stepped forward with allegations against Ronaldo: English model and reality TV star Jasmine Lennard said in an extensive Twitter thread that during a relationship with the soccer star, he threatened to have her "body cut up and put in a bag and thrown in a river" if she dated anyone else, among other things. She has since apparently deleted her Twitter account, Fox News reports. Ronaldo denies her allegations, per Deadspin. (Mayorga says Ronaldo told her he's "usually a gentleman.")

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