Ex-Bills punter Matt Araiza will NOT face criminal charges over alleged 2021 gang rape

Former Buffalo Bills kicker Matt Araiza will not face criminal charges over allegations that he participated in the gang rape of a minor while attending San Diego State. Araiza, a rookie, was released by the Bills after the allegations first became public in August.

The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office announced its decision Wednesday, saying that “prosecutors have 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.

Former Bills kicker Matt Araiza (pictured) will 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.

Dan Gilleon, who represented the plaintiff known as “Jane Doe,” responded to the news on Wednesday in a statement to The Athletic accusing the prosecutor’s office of firing his client because she was intoxicated.

“I’m not surprised,” Gilleon said. ‘Police rarely pay much attention to cases where the victim is intoxicated. Here, the police made it clear in January 2022 that they were not interested in the case. They made that clear by hiding my client and keeping her in the dark. It was only the media attention that caused the police to go on a pony and dog show long enough for them to say they had conducted a thorough investigation.

Araiza and two of his former San Diego State teammates were accused in a civil lawsuit in August of gang-raping the teen at an off-campus party in 2021 while the kicking star was still playing for the Aztecs.

The lawsuit, filed in San Diego County Superior Court, accuses Araiza, Zavier Leonard and Nowlin ‘Pa’a’ Ewaliko of gang-raping a then-17-year-old girl at a Halloween party at a home where she lived. Araiza. Through his lawyer, Araiza has denied the charges.

The plaintiff, who is now 18 years old, identifies herself in the complaint as ‘Jane Doe’ because she was a minor at the time.

If an NFL team were to sign Araiza, it would not be subject to the league’s personal conduct policy on the alleged violation because it took place in 2021, before he was drafted.

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

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. She was ‘observably intoxicated on arrival’.

Jane Doe then got 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.

She alleges that he then took her to a side yard where he asked her to perform oral sex on him. Subsequently, according to her demand, he then had sex with her before taking her to a bedroom in her house. There were at least three other men in the room, including Leonard and Ewaliko, according to the complaint. The lawsuit states that Araiza threw the teen on the bed and she entered and lost consciousness while being raped. She added, “but 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.

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.

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