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Former Buffalo Bills and San Diego State punter Matt Araiza, who was released without ever playing for the AFC East franchise, signed with a professional soccer team in Mexico.
Galgos de Tijuana, also known as the Tijuana Greyhounds, of the Professional American Football League announced Monday that they had signed their new kicker.
‘Welcome Matt Araiza! The San Diego State University-trained kicker and punter arrives at Galgos for the 2023 season,” the caption read.
Araiza was accused of participating in the gang rape of a 17-year-old girl while she was attending San Diego State University.
However, he never faced criminal charges after the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office ruled against a filing in December, citing insufficient evidence.
Galgos de Tijuana, of the Professional American Football League, announced the signing of Araiza
Prosecutors determined that it is clear that the evidence does not support the filing of criminal charges. “There is no path to a potential criminal conviction,” the prosecutor’s statement read.
A civil lawsuit is still pending and other defendants, two of Araiza’s former teammates at San Diego State, have been filed in San Diego County Superior Court regarding the alleged 2021 incident.
He accuses Araiza, Zavier Leonard and Nowlin ‘Pa’a’ Ewaliko of gang-raping the underage girl at a Halloween party at a house where Araiza had been living as a student athlete at SDSU. Through her lawyer, Araiza has denied the charges.
He was released by the Bills in late August, amid allegations and mounting public pressure, despite winning the starting job in training camp.
The winner of the Ray Guy Award, given to the best punter in college football, was a sixth-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft and beat out veteran Matt Haack to kick for the Bills.
When the lawsuit went public on August 26, Buffalo initially defended Araiza, before finally cutting the 22-year-old two days later.
General manager Brandon Beane said the organization was aware of Araiza’s version of events before bringing him to Orchard Park.
According to the lawsuit, obtained by DailyMail.com, the teen had been drinking with friends when they decided to go to the party on October 17, 2021. She was “observably intoxicated upon arrival.”
Former Bills kicker Matt Araiza did not face criminal charges over allegations that he participated in the gang rape of a minor while attending San Diego State University. Araiza, a rookie, was released by the Bills after the allegations first became public in August.
The then-teenager, known as “Jane Doe” due to her status as a minor, later separated from her friends and Araiza approached her and offered her a drink, according to the file. She believes the drink “contained not only alcohol, but other intoxicating substances,” the complaint said.
She allegedly told Araiza that she was a senior in high school before he took her to a side yard and asked her to perform oral sex on him.
The two had sex and then he took her to a room in the house, where there were at least three other men, including Leonard and Ewaliko, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit states that Araiza threw the teenager on the bed and she entered and lost consciousness while being raped. She added: “She remembers some moments from the horrible gang rape.”
After an hour and a half, the teen “came out of the room bloody and crying,” according to the complaint. His nose, navel, and ear piercings had been removed.
Araiza, 22, who attended San Diego’s Rancho Bernardo High, was SDSU’s most recognizable player during a school-record 12-2 season that ranked 25th in the final AP Top 25 poll in 2021. the field with his amazing punting and set an NCAA record with a 51.19-yard average. He won the Ray Guy Award and was a first-team AP All-American.
The lawsuit, filed in San Diego County Superior Court, charges Araiza, Zavier Leonard (right) and Nowlin ‘Pa’a’ Ewaliko (left) with gang-raping a 17-year-old girl at a Halloween party in a house. where Araiza had been living
She immediately told her friends about the rape and reported it to police the next day and underwent a rape exam, according to the lawsuit. The officers trained her to call Araiza, which she did 10 days later when detectives recorded it, according to the complaint.
During the call, Araiza acknowledged having sex with her, the lawsuit says, but later, when she asked him, “And did we have actual sex?” he replied ‘This is Matt Araiza. I don’t remember anything that happened that night’ and he hung up.
But before hanging up the phone, Araiza told Doe to get tested for chlamydia, according to the file.
“Araiza told Doe that she had tested positive for chlamydia, at which point Doe was instructed to say, ‘So you know why you should get tested, okay, that makes me feel a little better.'”
Buffalo Bills kicker Matthew Araiza told his 17-year-old rape accuser in a police-monitored phone call that he needed to be tested for chlamydia after an alleged hour-and-a-half attack that left her “bloody and crying.” ‘ according to a court file obtained by DailyMail.com
Attorney Kerry Armstrong, who represented Araiza in the criminal investigation, called the allegations false based on the findings of an investigator he hired.
Araiza’s parents also issued an angry statement following his release from the bills, reminding the nation that “the rule of law is innocent until proven guilty.”
“I 100% don’t believe that he ever forcibly raped this girl or had sex with her while she was passed out or drunk or anything like that,” Armstrong told the AP. It is unfortunate that she has filed a civil lawsuit. I think it’s a cash grab.
‘Matt Araiza is very upset about this, as you can imagine. He is very disappointed,” Armstrong said. “But he will eventually have his day in court.”
If an NFL team were to sign Araiza after his time in Tijuana, he would not be subject to the league’s personal conduct policy on the alleged violation because it is said to have taken place in 2021, before he was drafted.
Araiza greets fans after an NFL preseason game against Indianapolis on August 13.