Civil suit dropped against former San Diego State 'Punt God' Matt Araiza
Araiza has hopes of returning to the NFL, his lawyer said.
Content warning: This story contains depictions of alleged sexual assault.
A woman who once alleged she was sexually assaulted, including in a violent gang rape, by former NFL punter Matt Araiza has agreed to dismiss her civil lawsuit against him.
Authorities in San Diego, where the alleged 2021 incident occurred, previously declined to prosecute Araiza and even determined that Araiza wasn’t at the party when the alleged gang rape occurred.
An uproar following the filing of the civil suit in August 2022 led the Buffalo Bills to cut Araiza, a rookie sixth-round draft pick at the time. He has not played in the NFL since.
Araiza is making no monetary payments to the woman or admitting any guilt. In exchange for her dropping her civil suit, he agreed to drop his own defamation suit against the woman, Araiza’s lawyer told Yahoo Sports. Araiza is maintaining his right to sue the woman’s attorney, Dan Gilleon.
“The win is bittersweet,” Araiza’s lawyer, Dick Semerdjian, stated. “Matt has been forced to defend himself for the last 16 months against false accusations and a campaign to ruin his career in the NFL. He will never get this time in his life back.”
The initial claims were graphic and troubling. The woman, who was 17 at the time, alleged that Araiza, then a star player at San Diego State, participated in a violent sexual assault, including bringing her into a bedroom with numerous other men. The suit claimed that “Araiza threw [the girl] onto the bed face first,” and she suffered through “the horrific gang rape” that lasted an hour and a half and left her “bloody and crying.”
Araiza always admitted to having consensual sex with the girl earlier in the evening but not to knowing that she was 17. He said he assumed she was older because it was a college party and she told other people that she was 18. He vehemently denied any other contact with the woman.
SDSU, local police and the San Diego County prosecutor’s office conducted lengthy investigations into the allegations and declined to charge Araiza.
Last spring, local prosecutors met with the woman and stated that evidence collected determined that Araiza had already left the house when the alleged gang rape occurred.
“He wasn’t even at the party anymore,” deputy district attorney Trisha Amador explained in a recorded meeting with the woman. Amador later said of the timeline of events: “All I know is that at that point, suspect Araiza is gone from the party.”
Prosecutors also told the girl that video recordings of the incident in the bedroom caused them to question whether there was actually a rape, rather than consensual sex with numerous men.
“In looking at the videos on the sex tape, I absolutely cannot prove any forceable sexual assault based upon what happened,” Amador said.
Araiza, who had been dubbed “The Punt God” during his record-setting college career and completed an 82-yard punt for the Bills in the 2022 preseason, hoped Amador’s statement would get him a second chance in the NFL. He was set to be the Bills' punter in 2022 and had agreed to a $3.8 million contract that was later voided.
The New York Jets brought him in for a workout in May 2023, but he has not been signed. Numerous NFL teams told Yahoo Sports that they would be hesitant to employ Araiza as long as the civil suit was pending. That is no longer an issue.
"We cannot overstate the importance to our system of justice of the presumption of innocence,” Semerdjian stated. “Matt has always maintained his innocence, despite the public outcry that resulted when he was falsely accused of crimes and civil assault. Thankfully, there was extensive evidence that was key to securing Matt’s voluntary dismissal from this lawsuit.
“Matt was and has always been innocent,” Semerdjian continued. “The case is over, and Matt has prevailed. He now has the full intention of returning to the NFL in hopes of resuming a successful punting career.”
