Bills punter cleared of sexual assault accusation.

Matt Araiza: The Punt God Who Faced False Accusations

San Diego State University graduate Matt Araiza was on his way to a promising NFL career after being named the Buffalo Bills starting punter in August. His talent earned him the nickname “Punt God.” However, his career was cut short when a woman filed a civil lawsuit claiming that Araiza and two college football teammates gang-raped her when she was just 17.

False Accusations and Public Vilification

The San Diego police investigated the woman’s claims for almost ten months but sent it to the district attorney without a recommendation for prosecution. The Bills also investigated the incident and employed Araiza anyway. However, the civil lawsuit became public, and the media and the public vilified Araiza, taking the claims at face value. The Bills cut Araiza, and his career is still in limbo, even though prosecutors announced on December 7, 2022, following a 124-day investigation, that they wouldn’t charge anyone for the alleged gang rape.

Transcript Reveals the Truth

Now, a 200-plus page transcript of a nearly two-hour meeting obtained by Yahoo explains why prosecutors didn’t file charges. According to investigators, Araiza wasn’t even at the house when the incident is alleged to have occurred, and video evidence from the encounter casts doubt on the claim that the sex between the woman and the other men was not consensual.

The district attorney’s office explains to the woman and her attorneys why they aren’t prosecuting Araiza and his two college teammates. Prosecutors determined that Araiza left the house party where the rape was alleged to have occurred at 12:30 a.m., while timestamps place the incident at 1:30 a.m.

“He wasn’t even at the party anymore,” Deputy District Attorney Trisha Amador told the woman and her attorneys.

Amador also told the woman that recordings of the incident made it impossible to know if it was gang rape or consensual sex.

“In looking at the videos on the sex tape, I absolutely cannot prove any forceable sexual assault based upon what happened,” Amador told them.

Continued Legal Battle

The accuser maintains through her attorney that she was raped and that Araiza is one of her rapists. Her attorney, Dan Gilleon, said in a statement to Fox News that his client wouldn’t be “bullied” into dropping her civil lawsuit.

“It’s not going to happen. This case is going to trial, and we’ll force Araiza to talk,” Gilleon said.

Gilleon also told CBS8 that prosecutors determined that Araiza was somewhere else at the time of the alleged incident based on the word of a “buddy.” Prosecutors cited a witness and other information when determining Araiza had left the party.

The investigations by police and prosecutors included more than 35 witness interviews, including the woman’s friends who were at the party, as well as a Sexual Assault Team exam, and ten search warrants that obtained four terabytes of information, including footage of the alleged incident.

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