The Nevada Supreme Court has disbarred longtime Las Vegas attorney Leslie Stovall, ending a legal career that dated back to 1985, after finding he built a federal lawsuit against soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo on cyber-hacked, privileged documents. Stovall represented Kathryn Mayorga, who alleged Ronaldo raped her in Las Vegas in 2009, in a civil case that unraveled after courts determined he had knowingly used stolen attorney-client communications to try to void a prior settlement.
A Case Built on Stolen Files
According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Stovall based Mayorga's federal lawsuit on leaked and stolen documents that turned out to be privileged communications between Ronaldo and his own attorneys. Those records, per The Washington Post, originated from a cyber hack involving Ronaldo's former attorneys and other European records, with material later published by Football Leaks — and Stovall went further by directly contacting Pinto to request additional private files after German outlet Der Spiegel first published Football Leaks material.
A magistrate judge recommended the lawsuit be dismissed, and U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey formally threw out Mayorga's suit in 2022, ruling that Stovall had crossed the line of ethical behavior before he even filed the action, the Review-Journal reports. In her dismissal order, Dorsey concluded that simply disqualifying Stovall would not cure the damage to Ronaldo's defense because the stolen privileged communications had been, in her words, woven into the very fabric of Mayorga's claims, according to CBS News.
Six-Figure Sanction and a Failed Appeal
The financial consequences followed quickly. In February 2023, Dorsey ordered Stovall to personally pay $334,647 in defense legal fees to Ronaldo's legal team as a sanction for his bad-faith use of the stolen material, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported at the time. Ronaldo's defense had originally sought more than $626,000, but the judge trimmed the request to cover only fees directly caused by Stovall's misconduct.
Stovall took his fight to the Ninth Circuit, but the appeals court affirmed Dorsey's dismissal with prejudice in November 2023, according to court records published by Justia Law. The appeals court's decision left the dismissal with prejudice in place.
Stovall also tried to unseal confidential Nevada state court records — including police reports and the 2010 settlement agreement — but Clark County District Court Judge Jasmin Lilly-Spells rejected that effort in February 2023, ruling the confidentiality orders were final. The Associated Press noted that news organizations, including the New York Times and the Review-Journal, had also sought access to the sealed files before both state and federal judges upheld confidentiality.
What the Civil Case Sought — and What Police Found
Mayorga's 2018 civil lawsuit sought to void her 2010 settlement and demanded more than $25 million in damages, arguing she was psychologically incapacitated when she accepted the original $375,000 payout arranged by Ronaldo's representatives, according to the Associated Press. Ronaldo's attorneys have said the encounter between Ronaldo and Mayorga was consensual.
Criminal authorities reached a different conclusion years earlier. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police had closed their original 2009 investigation without charges after Mayorga reported the assault but declined to name Ronaldo or specify where it occurred, according to CBS News. Police reopened the case in 2018 after Mayorga's lawsuit was filed, but Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson officially declined to file criminal charges in July 2019, stating the allegations could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, per the Associated Press.
From Suspension to Full Disbarment
Stovall faced disbarment after a State Bar complaint alleged he had requested and received leaked information. State Bar Counsel Daniel Hooge noted during disciplinary proceedings that attorneys violate professional ethics rules whenever they knowingly obtain and use stolen documents, according to Gambling News.
The Nevada Supreme Court temporarily suspended Stovall, and a recommendation of disbarment followed, the outlet reported in a separate piece. That interim suspension preceded the court's ultimate decision this month to disbar Stovall outright, closing out a Nevada law career that had run more than four decades. Stovall did not respond to the Review-Journal's requests for comment Monday.
