The Buffalo Payments on Saturday mentioned they have been releasing punter Matt Araiza from the staff, two days after a civil lawsuit accused him and two different former San Diego State College soccer gamers of gang raping a 17-year-old woman final 12 months at an off-campus celebration.
Araiza, 22, whose highly effective and exact kicking in school earned him the moniker “Punt God,” was accused of bringing the teenager right into a room through the celebration the place she was repeatedly raped.
The lawsuit, filed in San Diego County Superior Courtroom, alleges that the then-high college senior went out and in of consciousness however remembers moments as the boys took turns assaulting her.
The Occasions reported on the allegations on Thursday.
In a information convention, Payments Common Supervisor Brandon Beane mentioned the previous 48 hours because the allegations surfaced have been troublesome for everybody concerned, together with the teenager on the middle of the lawsuit.
“We simply suppose it’s one of the best transfer for everybody to maneuver on from Matt,” Beane mentioned Saturday.
The opposite males named within the civil grievance are Zavier Leonard and Nowlin “Pa’a” Ewaliko. Leonard was listed beforehand on the college’s fall soccer roster as a redshirt freshman, however the college mentioned Saturday in a press release that he’s not on the staff. Ewaliko was on the staff final 12 months as a freshman however isn’t on the present roster.
Araiza and the opposite males haven’t been charged with crimes associated to the allegations. San Diego police haven’t publicly recognized any suspects or launched different primary particulars a couple of prison investigation they performed into the rape allegation, which has been turned over to prosecutors within the county district lawyer’s workplace, who will decide whether or not to file prices.
Based on her lawsuit, the younger girl alleging the rape allowed police to document telephone calls she had with the boys named within the lawsuit who police “had decided have been current within the room when the rape occurred.”
She beforehand advised the Occasions that she finally needed her alleged rapists to be held accountable for his or her actions.
“I simply actually wish to see some type of accountability,” she mentioned Thursday after the lawsuit was filed. “I really feel like I’ve handled sufficient of the results of what occurred that day.”
On Saturday, Araiza’s lawyer, Kerry Armstrong, launched a press release saying, “Matt could be very dissatisfied that his profession with the Payments ended not as a result of he performed poorly, however due to false allegations leveled towards him by a younger girl and her lawyer. I hope he’s again within the NFL quickly. He deserves to be, as he’s the hardest-working 22-year-old I do know.”
In an interview on Thursday with The Occasions, Armstrong mentioned his investigator spoke to witnesses from the celebration who contradict the allegations towards Araiza.
“It’s a shakedown as a result of he’s now with the Buffalo Payments,” Armstrong mentioned, including, “There isn’t any doubt in my thoughts” that Araiza didn’t rape the teenager.
Calling the choice by the Payments to chop Araiza “the self-inflicted justice he deserves,” the accuser’s lawyer, Daniel Gilleon, lashed out at Araiza and Armstrong in a press release Saturday.
Gilleon mentioned that after he advised Armstrong that the girl was not concerned with being paid by Araiza, Armstrong nonetheless provided an amount of cash to settle the problem, which the girl rejected.
The shakedown accusation, Gilleon mentioned, was “totally inhumane and stunningly silly.”
Gilleon additionally mentioned he had contacted the Payments group to alert them to the allegations towards Araiza however had been rebuffed.
“The Buffalo Payments had no selection however to chop their younger punter after so badly botching their response to our declare: they ignored us, as if what I warned them would occur might be prevented if they simply saved their heads within the sand. That is what enablers do,” Gilleon mentioned.
Araiza’s title surfaced in reference to the rape allegation in not less than one report made by scholar athletes inside days of the celebration to San Diego State officers by means of an nameless campus reporting system, based on inner campus information reviewed by The Occasions.
Based on the lawsuit, the teenager advised Araiza she was a highschool scholar and, though he might see she was extremely intoxicated, he sexually assaulted her exterior the celebration. Then Araiza took her to a bed room the place Leonard, Ewaliko and not less than one different man have been, the grievance alleged, and threw her down on the mattress face first. The lawsuit mentioned she was raped for an hour and a half till the celebration was shut down.
The newest developments come as San Diego State continues to face criticism after a Occasions investigation discovered that the college determined to not alert the campus group concerning the alleged gang rape and waited greater than 9 months to launch its personal investigation.
Campus officers have mentioned police requested them to not take any motion that might compromise their investigation and that they weren’t required by federal regulation to ship out a criminal offense notification. After The Occasions’ report, San Diego State officers started posting some details about the October incident on a campus web site.
Campus officers have mentioned they requested San Diego police to supply data to the teenager about Title IX, the federal regulation that prohibits discrimination on the premise of intercourse at federally funded instructional establishments. The college, nonetheless, has not answered repeated questions from The Occasions about why campus police didn’t give that data on to her father.
The younger girl has publicly criticized the town Police Division’s dealing with of her case, which she believed stalled out after the brand new 12 months, in addition to San Diego State’s inaction. Her father, who spoke to The Occasions on the situation of anonymity, mentioned that he shared his daughter’s account with campus police three days after the celebration and was by no means offered data that might have helped him lodge a grievance that would have spurred a Title IX investigation.