Recording details prosecutors' decision not to file charges in San Diego State rape case

San Diego State football players on the practice field

San Diego Union-Tribune

April 27, 2023 9:45 AM PT

SAN DIEGO — Former college football star Matt Araiza isn’t in any of the sexually explicit videos taken the night a young woman alleges she was gang raped at a house party near San Diego State University, officials who worked on the case told the young woman — citing it as one of the reasons there would be no criminal case.

Descriptions of those videos, as well as statements that Araiza was seen leaving the party before they were recorded, were provided during a Dec. 7 meeting between the San Diego County district attorney’s office and the woman and her civil attorney.

The Union-Tribune obtained an audio recording of the meeting, which lasted roughly one hour and 40 minutes, and during which Deputy Dist. Atty. Trisha Amador and a district attorney investigator discussed the reasons behind the office’s decision not to file criminal charges.

The prosecutor emphasized that the videos were just one part of what her office considered.

Hours after the meeting, the district attorney’s office made its decision public.

Although there is no criminal case, Araiza is fighting a civil suit the woman filed accusing him and two other former San Diego State football players of rape at the party in fall 2021. Through their attorneys and court documents, Araiza and the other two men, Nowlin “Pa’a” Ewaliko and Zavier Leonard, maintain their innocence, and said any encounters with the young woman were consensual.

Central to both cases is a series of short videos — about nine of them, less than 10 seconds each — that appear to capture the teen involved in sex acts. Officials described the clips as being “point of view” shots, or from the perspective of the person engaging in the act.

The first was recorded around 12:55 a.m. in the living room of the home, officials said during the meeting. That’s about 30 minutes after a witness said they saw Araiza leave the party.

Other videos appear to capture several people engaging in sex acts with the teen in a bedroom of the home around 1:30 a.m. Some of the videos were in a Snapchat format.

“In looking at the videos … I absolutely cannot prove any forcible sexual assault happened,” Amador told the teen.

At times, the meeting was emotional and tense. After Amador explained she couldn’t file any charges of forcible rape, the teen asked about rape charges because she was under age 18.

“I have to be able to prove that they knew your age,” Amador replied.

“Or that I was intoxicated?” the teen asked.

“I have to be able to prove your intoxication levels,” Amador said.

“That’s bull— that you can’t prove any of that,” the teen said.

According to her civil lawsuit, the incident happened at a Halloween party held at a College Area home early on Oct. 17, 2021.

Araiza’s attorneys in the civil case are asking a San Diego County Superior Court judge to order police to provide them with copies of the videos. A hearing on that matter is slated for Thursday.

Reached Wednesday, Araiza attorney Dick Semerdjian, called the videos “the most pertinent, important evidence of what happened that night.”

“His world has been crushed by allegations we know we can prove are false,” Semerdjian said. “It’s just heartbreaking.”

San Diego police, through the city attorney’s office, are fighting the request from the civil attorneys, citing state law barring the release of evidence of a minor engaging in a sex act. The woman’s civil attorney, Dan Gilleon, said he opposes the release for the same reason.

Gilleon said Wednesday that the Dec. 7 meeting with his client was designed to explain to her why prosecutors were not filing charges — the government has to prove charges in a criminal case beyond a reasonable doubt — and it focused on information that could be seen as unfavorable, rather than facts that support her case.

“The purpose of the meeting was to talk about all of the reasons why they couldn’t do it,” he said.

Semerdjian and Gilleon each said they have not seen the videos.

Police collected a trove of evidence — four terabytes worth during the monthslong investigation, which included obtaining 10 search warrants and going through the cellphones of several party attendees.

Asked for comment on the audio of the meeting and the battle over releasing the videos, the district attorney’s office issued the following statement: “Any release of evidence is controlled by the law and follows the legal discovery process.”

The young woman filed her civil suit before the decision not to bring criminal charges. Her attorney pointed to the higher burden of proof for prosecutors than is required in a civil trial.

Attorneys for Araiza have been pushing to have the civil case against their client dropped. At the time of the party, Araiza was a senior and standout punter, a collegiate phenom drafted by the Buffalo Bills. He was cut after the civil suit was filed.

“Defendant Araiza did not ask to be involved in this case,” his attorney wrote in a filing this week, seeking to unseal evidence in the criminal investigation.

“He was fired from his job as a 7th-round drafted punter by the NFL’s Buffalo Bills,” Semerdjian wrote. “He has been unable to return to his NFL career due to Plaintiff’s lawsuit.

“He takes no pleasure in having to litigate these issues.”

His attorneys have asked that the young woman drop Araiza from the civil case.

In a motion filed last week in the battle over releasing the videos to the civil attorneys, Gilleon said his client said the assault “took place over more than an hour, but the combined time of all videos is just a few minutes.”

“The videos do not prove Matt Araiza was never present, just that the cameras did not capture his image during the few seconds each lasted,” he wrote.

In her suit, the woman alleged Araiza, then 21, had sex with her in a side yard of the residence before bringing her into a bedroom. She said a group of men in that bedroom took turns raping her.

Gilleon said Wednesday that he has offered to alter the civil complaint to remove the allegation that Araiza had led his client to a bedroom.