Bills P. Matt Araiza is charged with rape.
NFL punter Matt Araiza and two football players from San Diego State are accused of gang rape in a lawsuit.
Matt Araiza, 22, was charged with having sex with the minor outside the home before bringing her inside to a room where she was repeatedly raped. His powerful and accurate kicking in college earned him the nickname "Punt God." The lawsuit, which was filed in San Diego County Superior Court, claims that the then-senior in high school experienced periods of unconsciousness but remembers the assaults by the men as they happened.
Zavier Leonard and Nowlin "Pa'a" Ewaliko are the other men listed in the complaint. The university's fall football roster lists Leonard as a redshirt freshman. Ewaliko was a freshman on the team last year, but she is not currently listed on the roster.
Kerry Armstrong, Araiza's attorney, claimed he hadn't read the complaint but denied the rape allegation. He claimed that during interviews with party members, witnesses who dispute Araiza's accusations were made.
There is no doubt in my mind that Araiza did not rape the teen, Armstrong said, adding that "it's a shakedown" because he is currently playing for the Buffalo Bills.
Marc Xavier Carlos, the attorney who is defending Ewaliko in the incident's ongoing criminal investigation, declined to comment on the lawsuit and said he was still looking into what happened. He claimed that his client had left San Diego State. Leonard's lawyer, Jamahl Kersey, declined to comment because he had not seen the lawsuit. He stated that no inferences about his client should be made based on the fact that a criminal investigation is still ongoing.
The lawsuit was filed at the same time that San Diego State is dealing with criticism for its decision to wait more than seven months to open its own investigation into the alleged gang rape, according to a Times investigation.
According to campus representatives, police asked them not to do anything that would jeopardize their investigation and that they were not required by federal law to notify the public of a crime. San Diego State officials started sharing some details about the October incident on a campus website after reading The Times report.
San Diego police have not made any arrests or made any suspects public knowledge. In order to determine whether charges ought to be brought, detectives recently submitted their investigation to the district attorney's office of San Diego County.
After receiving notification from the city police department that opening a Title IX investigation would not jeopardize the criminal investigation, the university did so last month. The federal law known as Title IX forbids sex-based discrimination in educational institutions receiving federal funding. Since Araiza and Ewaliko are no longer students at the institution, they are not required to cooperate with the campus investigation.
Contact the National Sexual Violence Resource Center or the RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) sexual assault hotline at (800) 656-4673 if you or someone you know needs assistance.
After the team released veteran punter Matt Haack earlier this week, Araiza won the starting punting job for the Bills, one of the early favorites to win Super Bowl LVII.
He was the second player in San Diego State history to receive unanimous first-team All-American honors. As a junior this past season, he broke numerous NCAA records, including the most punts over 50 yards, and was named the Ray Guy Award winner for best collegiate punter in the country. He declared for the NFL draft after winning the Mountain West Conference's special teams player of the year award.
Uncertain how the lawsuit will impact Araiza's pro standing.
The lawsuit's allegations follow the NFL's recent announcement that Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson will serve an 11-game suspension without pay after being accused of sexual misconduct during massage sessions by more than two dozen women. Watson must also submit to a behavioral expert's evaluation, follow their recommended treatment plan, and pay a $5 million fine.
According to a statement the Bills gave to The Times on Thursday, "We were just made aware of a civil complaint involving Matt from October 2021." We conducted a careful investigation into this matter because the complaint was so serious. We are unable to comment further at this time because this is an ongoing civil case.
At least one report made to San Diego State officials by student-athletes through an anonymous campus reporting system within days of the party mentioned Araiza in relation to the rape allegation.
In a report dated October 26 that The Times reviewed along with other internal records in the case, a student stated, "I hope this isn't true for Matt's sake." "However, if it's true, I hope he suffers the consequences he merits and [the girl] receives justice."
The San Diego State football team was having one of its best seasons ever at the time.
The student athlete claimed that since 99 percent of the football players are aware of the five-person rape, the remaining student-athletes are left to wonder why nothing is being done.
Last week, Snapdragon Stadium, the team's new home and the focal point of a multibillion-dollar campus development project at San Diego State, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the help of the university's president, Adela de la Torre.
On September 3, 2022, the Aztec team plays Arizona in the first game of the 2022 campaign at its new stadium.
Last month, the woman at the center of the lawsuit made her first public statement. She admitted being traumatized and having to complete her senior year of high school online at the age of 18.
She is known as Jane Doe in her lawsuit; The Times typically does not identify alleged victims of sex crimes.
According to the lawsuit, the off-campus party began on October 16 and the assault took place in the early hours of October 17.
The woman claimed in her lawsuit that she was already intoxicated when they arrived at the party on Rockford Drive and that Araiza, who lived there, gave her a drink. According to the complaint, she thinks the beverage "contained other intoxicating substances in addition to alcohol."
Attorney Armstrong for Araiza stated that he does not think the adolescent was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
According to a Times analysis of text messages, San Diego police detectives assisted the young woman during her pretext calls. Police have not provided recordings of those calls or the police report for his client, according to the woman's lawyer, Daniel Gilleon. He added that the results of the rape examination were also kept a secret.
The adolescent has publicly criticized San Diego State's inaction and the city police department's handling of her case, which she believed had stalled out after the new year. Three days after the party, her father told campus police about what happened, but he never received any information for the Title IX investigation or complaint procedure, according to her father, who spoke to The Times on the condition of anonymity.
The university claimed to have asked San Diego police to give the victim's father the information, but it has yet to respond to repeated queries from The Times regarding why campus police did not do so.
