The parents of Matt Araiza, a former San Diego State football player released from the Buffalo Bills this week after a civil lawsuit accused him and former college teammates of gang-raping a teen at a party last fall, are piping hot mad over how he has been treated over the last week.
They say their son hasn’t been treated fairly since the allegations surfaced and that their family has even received death threats.
Araiza’s attorney Kerry Armstrong sent this statement from his parents:
“The rule of law is innocent until proven guilty. That is not our experience. There has been war waged on our son. He has been tried and convicted in the media based on information released solely from the alleged victim and her attorney, much of it through social media. People have taken his information as factual, when it is not.
We do not wish this experience on anyone, but question why our son is the only one receiving this kind of treatment by social media and national news media. The vitriol has been on him alone. He has been extorted, discriminated against, harassed and the subject of multiple and continuous threats of violence and death. He has been released from his job and our entire family continues to receive horrific threats of violence and death. We have all been canceled. Every member of our family.
Salacious rumors grew as fact. There are multiple witness reports to deny the claims that are made against him. The legal system is designed to find the facts and make decisions. They should be allowed to do that.”
The civil lawsuit against Araiza and two of his former SDSU teammates, Zavier Leonard and Nowlin “Pa’a” Ewaliko, was filed in San Diego County Superior Court last Thursday.
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It alleges that Araiza knew the alleged victim was a 17-year-old high school student and goes into detail about the alleged gang rape.
On Saturday, the Bills decided to remove him from the team by releasing the sixth-round draft pick who was an All-American at SDSU and graduated from Rancho Bernardo High School in 2017.
“Our culture in Buffalo is more important than winning football games,” the team said.
