What to Know About the Allegations Against Matt Araiza
Prosecutors declined to pursue criminal charges against Araiza, the former Buffalo Bills rookie punter who was accused of raping a 17-year-old high school student in a lawsuit filed in San Diego.
San Diego prosecutors declined to bring a criminal case against the former N.F.L. punter Matt Araiza or his former San Diego State football teammates who were accused in a lawsuit of raping a 17-year-old girl in October 2021.
“Ultimately, prosecutors determined it is clear the evidence does not support the filing of criminal charges and there is no path to a potential criminal conviction,” a statement released in December 2022 by the office of Summer Stephan, the San Diego County district attorney, said. “Prosecutors can only file charges when they ethically believe they can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The Buffalo Bills cut Araiza, who was a rookie, in August 2022, two days after he and two college teammates, Nowlin Ewaliko and Zavier Leonard, were accused of rape stemming from an incident at a party near the San Diego State campus.
Ewaliko was separately charged in March with a felony count of possessing child sex abuse material after this investigation led to the discovery of unlawful pornography, the district attorney’s office said. He pleaded not guilty.
The district attorney’s office met twice with the teenage accuser in the case, interviewed 35 witnesses and examined DNA evidence before deciding not to prosecute.
The allegations became public after the girl filed a lawsuit against Araiza and his teammates in San Diego Superior Court that is still being litigated. The suit claims that Araiza, who was 21 at the time, forced the girl to have sex despite knowing she was in high school and that she was intoxicated.
Araiza has denied the claims and last year said in a statement released through his agent that he was “grateful” to the district attorney and the San Diego Police Department and that he was “excited to continue my N.F.L. career.”
“I am never surprised when a prosecutor does not file sexual assault charges when the victim was intoxicated,” Dan Gilleon, the lawyer representing the teenager, said, adding that he would focus on pursuing the civil suit.
Araiza, 22, was perhaps the most noteworthy punter in college football in the 2021 season. Known as the “Punt God,” he averaged an N.C.A.A. record 51.2 yards per punt in 2021, his junior year. He was also San Diego State’s kicker during his three seasons there.
After Araiza won the Ray Guy Award, annually given to the best collegiate punter, the Bills selected him in the sixth round of the N.F.L. draft in April, well behind two punters selected in the fourth round who had arguably less impressive statistics.
Araiza won the starting job over the Bills’ veteran punter, Matt Haack, in training camp and gained some internet fame for his 82-yard punt in his first preseason game in August.
What is Araiza accused of?
The teenager said in a lawsuit that Araiza and two of his then-teammates at San Diego State took turns raping her during a Halloween party at an off-campus house in October 2021, while she was “observably intoxicated.”
According to the suit, she told Araiza that she was attending a local high school at the time of the party. She was under the age of consent, which is 18 in California.
She alleged that Araiza supplied her with alcohol and led her to the side yard, where he raped her orally and vaginally, before taking her to a bedroom inside the house, where she said a group of men, including the two other defendants in the suit, “took turns having sex with her from behind” while she went in and out of consciousness.
In the lawsuit she accused the men, including Araiza, of raping her for about an hour and a half before she “stumbled out of the room bloody and crying.”
Responding to the suit, Araiza’s criminal defense lawyer, Kerry Armstrong, said in a TV interview that Araiza did not force the girl to have sex.
“He is 100 percent adamant that he never forcibly raped this young lady or forcibly had sex with her in any type of way or had sexual relations with her while she was intoxicated, whether it be on alcohol or drugs,” Armstrong said.
Trisha Amador, the deputy district attorney in San Diego, explained the decision not to proceed with criminal charges in a December 2022 meeting with the accuser. Prosecutors said they did not believe that Araiza was still at the party when the alleged group rape happened, based on the testimony of one witness, according to a recording of the meeting. Amador said they established a timeline of the night based on video clips taken by some of the men involved in the alleged assault.
Amador also said they were not able to prove that the men accused of rape knew that the girl was under 18 or that she was too intoxicated to consent.
Gilleon, who represents the accuser, claimed that the witness who told investigators that Araiza left the party before the alleged group assault was Araiza’s friend. Gilleon added that Araiza’s lawyers had not provided corroborating information to support the friend’s account.
How did the Bills respond?
The team announced it had cut Araiza in a news conference in August 2022 that followed a team practice. “We don’t know all the facts, and that’s what makes it hard, but at this time we think it is the best move for everyone to move on from Matt and let him take care of this situation,” said Brandon Beane, the team’s general manager.
Beane said the team learned about the accusations from the woman’s lawyer in late July, about three months after Araiza was drafted. “We tried to be thorough and thoughtful and not rush to judgment,” he said. “It’s not easy.”
The team told The Los Angeles Times in August that “due to the serious nature of the complaint, we conducted a thorough examination of this matter.”
Gilleon, the lawyer for the accuser, emailed Kathryn D’Angelo, the assistant general counsel for the Bills, on July 31 to inform the team that his client was accusing Araiza of rape, according to a screenshot that was reviewed by The New York Times. Gilleon then spoke to D’Angelo by phone on Aug. 1. Gilleon contacted the Bills after the team drafted Araiza but before it cut Haack.
The team did not ask to speak to the accuser, according to Gilleon’s law firm. The Bills did not respond to The Times’s request for details on their investigation.
How has the N.F.L. responded?
The N.F.Li. did not respond to several requests for comment. Discipline of players — including suspensions — is governed by the league’s personal conduct policy, which does not cover actions that took place before a player or other employee joined a team or league office. The league has no plans to conduct an investigation.
The Bills can cut Araiza or any other player for conduct it deems detrimental to the team. That broad definition covers many things, including ongoing legal matters. Araiza had signed a four-year contract worth nearly $3.9 million, with about $216,000 of that amount guaranteed.
Leave a Reply