Matt Araiza may have cleared his name, but he is not going out quietly for his name being drug through the mud.
The former San Diego State and Buffalo Bills punter, who has been accused of taking part in a gang rape, said he intends to sue attorney Dan Gilleon for defamation.
“I’ve already hired an attorney for it, and things have already been drafted,” he told Andrea Kremer on Tuesday night’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (h/t Mike Florio of Pro Football Focus). “I will never waive my right to sue him. That’s coming.”
The prosecutor’s office investigating the case found that Araiza was gone from the party when the woman was allegedly gang-raped, however, Gilleon told Kremer that the finding “doesn’t absolve him of liability.”
“Our allegation is, is he contributed heavily to the harm that she suffered that night. He had sex with my client. Following that, she ended up having sex with multiple guys and came out of there bloodied, in shock. Ended up at the hospital, ended up with the police, and ended up traumatized. So that’s what I mean by the gang rape. Gang rapes can occur for two days. They can occur over time. They can occur multiple places. So that’s the clarification.”
The 23-year-old Araiza was released from the Bills in August after he and two of his former San Diego State teammates, Zavier Leonard and Nowlin Ewaliko, were accused of gang rape.
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No criminal charges have been filed against Araiza.
He is hoping to get a second chance in the league. In the meantime, he signed with the Tijuana Galgos back in February, a professional team in Mexico’s top American football league.
The former sixth-round pick will only be about a 30-minute drive south of San Diego State where he played collegiality for three seasons.
