Buffalo Bills punter Matt Araiza and two former teammates at San Diego State University were accused in a civil lawsuit of gang-raping a teen girl at an off-campus party last year, according to The Los Angeles Times.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in San Diego County Superior Court, alleges Araiza had sex with the girl outside his home, then brought her inside, where she was repeatedly raped by others as she drifted in and out of consciousness.
The woman, then a 17-year-old high school senior, said in the suit that she “stumbled out of the room bloody and crying” following the attack.
“Her nose, bellybutton, and ear piercings had been pulled out, and she was also bleeding from her vagina,” the lawsuit said.
Araiza, known as “Punt God” in college, has since become a top NFL kicker. Others named as defendants are former San Diego State players Zavier Leonard and Nowlin Ewaliko.
Araiza’s attorney, Kerry Armstrong, told The LA Times that witnesses at the party contradicted the woman’s story.
“It’s a shakedown because he’s now with the Buffalo Bills,” Armstrong said of Araiza. “There is no doubt in my mind.”
Attorneys for Leonard and Ewaliko wouldn’t comment, according to the newspaper.
San Diego police investigated the complaint. No one has been charged. The Buffalo Bills said the team was aware of the lawsuit and “conducted a thorough examination of this matter.”
“As this is an ongoing civil case, we will have no other comment at this point,” the team said in a statement to the LA Times.
The lawsuit described how the teen had been drinking with friends on Oct. 16 before arriving at Araiza’s home, where she said Araiza gave her a drink she believed “not only contained alcohol, but other intoxicating substances.”
The suit said she told Araiza her age, but he told her to perform oral sex on him, then had sex with her. After he took her into a bedroom, she said in the suit, the two other players and another man she didn’t identify took turns raping her for an hour and a half.
She said she told friends as soon as she escaped. She reported the assault to police the next day, she said, and underwent a hospital rape examination.
Now 18, she told the LA Times in July she was so traumatized she finished her last year of high school online.
Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.
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