She said later: “I cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that anybody would have known that you were. “So what I have are a variety of witnesses that are giving different accounts as to your age and what people would have known at the party,” Amador said to the woman. There was also a video of the teen at a different party the night before in which she states she was 18. The teen told police detectives she had told people at the party she was a student at “Grossmont” - a high school in East County - but Grossmont is also the name of a community college not far from San Diego State.Īt least two witnesses at the party reportedly heard the teen say she was 18, Amador said. One friend assumed anyone at the party would have thought the teen and her friends were in college, Amador said. At least one friend told investigators the teen had explicitly stated her age.īut others told investigators they didn’t recall age being brought up at all. In her lawsuit, the teen said she told people at the party she was 17 and a student at Grossmont High School. Namely, a suspect can argue they had a “reasonable and actual belief” that the person they had sex with was 18. But there are caveats in the law, Amador explained in the recording of meeting. In California, it’s illegal to have sex with someone under the age of 18. “Even in instances where we cannot file charges because we cannot prove a crime beyond a reasonable doubt, we reach out to the victims so they can meet with us so we can explain why the case cannot be filed and answer their questions,” the statement read. When asked to comment on the December meeting, the district attorney’s office said in a Friday statement that treating victims with “dignity, respect, courtesy and sensitivity” is a priority. They didn’t talk about facts in her favor, he said. The woman’s attorney, Dan Gilleon, however, stressed that the meeting was intentionally focused on the reasons prosecutors couldn’t make a case. The audio provides a raw look at a difficult exchange that was, at times, tense and emotional. Rarely, if ever, is the public made aware of the reasoning behind such a decision. Prosecutors could not move forward with a case. They gathered forensic evidence, cellphone data and DNA tests, and constructed a timeline of events.Īmador told the woman her office considered all of it. Investigators talked to the woman’s friends and to party attendees. Those few seconds of videos were found during a police investigation that turned up four terabytes of evidence. He and two other former Aztec players say they are innocent. Hearing slated Thursday for battle over release of videos to civil attorneys for Matt Araiza, former SDSU punter accused of assaulting teen. Public Safety Recording details prosecutors’ decision not to file criminal charges in SDSU rape case Araiza does not appear in the clips, prosecutors say. The videos were “point of view” shots taken from the perspective of those engaging in sexual acts with the teen. In last year’s meeting - more than a year after she made her report to police - the woman learned details about nine short video clips recorded at the party, some of which were in a Snapchat format. Araiza’s attorneys point to a witness who said they saw Araiza leave the party well before the assaults in the bedroom she reported later. The three men maintain through their attorneys that they are innocent of the accusations and said encounters with the woman were consensual. She said she stumbled out of the room bloodied. In her suit, the woman says Araiza had sex with her in a side yard of the residence, before she was taken to a bedroom, where a group of men took turns raping her. The lawsuit accuses three now-former Aztec players: NFL prospect and then-senior Matt Araiza, and then-redshirt freshmen Zavier Leonard and Nowlin “Pa’a” Ewaliko. The Union-Tribune generally does not name victims of alleged sexual assaults. Public Safety No charges filed in SDSU gang rape case, District Attorney’s Office saysįormer Buffalo Bills punter and standout SDSU football player Matt Araiza and two teammates had been accused of rape in a civil lawsuitĭetails of her allegations are laid out in investigative and court documents and in the woman’s civil suit, filed last summer.
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