Former SDSU punter Matt Araiza sues woman who accused him of rape

JULY 28, 2023 9:11 PM PT SAN DIEGO — Former star collegiate punter Matt Araiza filed a defamation lawsuit Friday against the woman who reported she was gang raped by him and other former college football players at a party near San Diego State University in fall 2021. The suit alleges that the woman “knowingly made false statements with a reckless disregard for the truth” when she spoke to San Diego police and later to local and national media outlets. Araiza — who lost his new NFL job after the woman filed a lawsuit against him and others nearly a year ago — claims in the document that the woman’s “(d)efamatory (s)tatements caused and continue to cause significant past and future economic losses, shame and mortification.

” His lawsuit, which The San Diego Union-Tribune reviewed Friday, does not specify how much money Araiza is seeking. The woman’s attorney, Dan Gilleon, said he he had not see the lawsuit yet “and we don’t litigate in the media. ” Although the lawsuit publicly names the woman, the Union-Tribune generally does not identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault.

Araiza’s suit comes as the woman pursues a lawsuit, also in San Diego Superior Court. San Diego police investigated the allegations for several months before handing the case to the District Attorney’s Office. Last December, the office announced it would not file criminal charges, finding no path to a potential criminal conviction.

San Diego, CA - August 05: At SDSU football practice field on Friday, Aug. 5, 2022 in San Diego, CA. , the team starts their first practice of fall camp.

(Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune) Hearing slated Thursday for battle over release of videos to civil attorneys for Matt Araiza, former SDSU punter accused of assaulting teen. He and two other former Aztec players say they are innocent.

In her lawsuit, the woman alleges that Araiza and four other players raped her at a party held at a College Area home in October 2021. It’s an allegation he flatly denies. He and most of the other accused players have said their encounters with the woman were consensual.

The Monday after the party, the woman — who was 17 years old at the time — reported to San Diego police that she had been raped by several men. She filed the lawsuit five months before prosecutors made their decision not to pursue a criminal case. In his lawsuit, Araiza alleges that the woman made false statements to several media outlets last year, and that she made a false statement to USA Today this year, several months after she learned there would be no criminal charges.

Araiza was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in April 2022. When the woman filed her suit four months later, the NFL team cut him. Araiza continues to pursue a punting job in the NFL.

His attorneys have said the woman’s ongoing civil case has led teams to shy away. In her civil suit, the woman alleges that Araiza had sex with her in a side yard of the residence before bringing her into a bedroom where a group of men took turns raping her. Araiza’s lawsuit tells a different version of events.

He said she approached him, they had sex in a side yard of the home and it was “entirely consensual. ” He said he never entered the home during the party. In the suit, Araiza claims the woman later approached another teammate and the two of them entered the house and had consensual sex, which was videotaped.

After that, according to the lawsuit, the woman approached another player and asked for sex, then entered a bedroom with that player and two others, and had consensual sex. That was recorded as well. The woman recently added two more players to her lawsuit.

Araiza’s lawsuit says he had left the party before those encounters happened in the home. In an interview with the Union-Tribune in May, Araiza said his interactions with the young woman were “brief and entirely led by her. ” He said she approached him in the backyard and “basically started flirting right away.

” He said the woman told him she was 18 years old and went to Grossmont, which Araiza took to mean Grossmont College. During the criminal investigation, San Diego police found 12 sexually graphic video clips of the woman, each clip running between five seconds to less than a minute long. Araiza’s attorneys are pushing to use those videos as evidence they say exonerates their client.

He reportedly does not appear in any of the recordings. .