Former Buffalo Bills punter Matt Araiza reveals he intends to sue over gang rape allegation

Former Bills gambler Matt Araiza said he plans to sue attorney Dan Gilleon for defamation in connection with a civil suit brought by the attorney alleging that the player participated in a gang rape last year.

Araiza was released from the Bills last August after being accused of raping a 17-year-old girl along with two of his former San Diego State football teammates near the school’s campus in the fall of 2021.

However, last month it emerged that Araiza was apparently not present at the alleged 2021 gang rape.

Now, during a conversation with Bryant Gumbel on HBO’s Real Sports on Tuesday night, Araiza revealed that he has hired an attorney and will not settle the pending civil lawsuit, intending to sue Gilleon for libel.

“I’ve already hired a lawyer for it and things are already lined up,” Araiza told HBO’s Andrea Kremer. “I will never waive my right to sue him. That’s coming.’

The 23-year-old appeared Tuesday night on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel

Gilleon, who was also interviewed on the programme, offered a revised version of the facts when questioned about prosecutors’ conclusion that Araiza had left the party at the time over the alleged gang rape.

“We’re not saying he was, and we’re not saying he wasn’t,” Gilleon said. “Let’s just say he wasn’t one of the men in there. That does not release him from liability.’

The new theory reportedly put forward by Gilleon on the program is that Araiza was “part of a plan by several men to assault his client, get her drunk and take turns having sex with her in the course of the night’.

However, this theory was not in the original complaint.

“Our contention is that he contributed greatly to the damage she suffered that night,” Gilleon said.

“He had sex with my client. Then she had sex with several guys and came out bloodied and in shock.

Ended up in the hospital, ended up with the police and ended up traumatized. So that’s what I mean by the gang rape. Gang rapes can last two days. They can develop over time. They can occur in several places. So that’s the clarification.’

Araiza, who said he was in shock when he first read the initial complaint, told HBO he was certain he had “never participated in a gang rape.”

He did admit to having sex with the girl, but said he believed it was consensual as he claimed the contact was initiated by her and that she had “made her intentions clear.”

In May, Yahoo Sports reported on a 200-page unsealed document, including a transcript of a conversation in which a deputy prosecutor told the girl, who was 17 at the time of the alleged incident, why charges against Araiza were not being prosecuted.

The district attorney’s office had apparently concluded that Araiza left the party in San Diego at 12:30 a.m. on the night of October 15, 2021 — about an hour before the alleged gang rape that Araiza was accused of participating in.

“He wasn’t even at the party anymore,” Trisha Amador told the girl, according to Yahoo. “All I know is that suspect Araiza disappeared from the party at that point.”

The report adds that there are recordings of the encounter with the girl time-stamped at 1:30 am. Araiza apparently had a witness that helped prosecutors conclude that he left about an hour earlier.

More to follow.