OT-ish: New info sheds light on prosecutors' decision not to charge former SDSU punter Matt Araiza who was accused of rape
TL;DR - New information indicates that the rape allegations against former SDSU punter Matt Araiza may be false.
Former SDSU punter Matt Araiza and other SDSU players were accused of gang raping a high school girl at a party, leading to Araiza being cut by the Bills (who had drafted him in 2022) and essentially blacklisted from the NFL. The girl filed a civil lawsuit against Araiza, and the allegations in the lawsuit are shocking to say the least.
Apparently, San Diego prosecutors conducted their own investigation into the allegations (separate from the investigation that the police had conducted), as a result of which they decided not to file criminal charges against Araiza and the other accused SDSU players. They also met with the accuser and her attorneys to explain their decision. Yahoo Sports obtained a transcript of that meeting, which reveals potentially exculpatory information about the alleged encounter. Per Yahoo Sports' report, prosecutors informed the girl that they believe Araiza left the party before the time the gang rape was alleged to have occurred. They also told her that witness testimony conflicted with her claim that she had been raped and supported the claims of the accused SDSU players that any sexual encounter that may have occured was consensual.
If the information in the transcript and Yahoo Sports' report is accurate and Araiza really didn't rape anyone, then let's hope he's fully exonerated in the court of public opinion and is able to get his career back on track. And if Araiza is innocent, we can also take this episode off the list of Brady Hoke's shortcomings.
Women that falsely accuse men of rape should get the same punishment the men would have gotten.
anyone who falsely accuse others are pure evil and should face harsh consequence. They not only ruin the life of accused but also waste precious public resource.
Anybody accidentally kills anybody in a fight, they go to jail. It's called manslaughter. I think all that lethal weapon horseshit is just an excuse so you dancers never have to get in a real fight.
I think all that lethal weapon horseshit is just an excuse so you dancers never have to get in a real fight.
This should be a line in the new Mandalorian.
Only if Tarantino directed that episode.
My dad worked with a guy who had his teen-age step-daughter accuse him of raping her. Some time later after various legal proceedings and him losing his job - and apparently much emotional distress - the guy eventually committed suicide. After he was dead, the step-daughter confessed that she made the whole thing up because she didn't like him.
That sort of thing apparently happens more often than anyone would like to think. Especially in divorce situations. I know 2 people who were similarly accused and the accuser eventually admitted that the accusation was false.
I know a father who had his son, daughter and stepdaughter all accuse of him of making them sleep with him has part of custody proceedings. The court apparently determined they were lying because all three had the exact same story word for word. It became obvious that their stories were made up and thoroughly rehearsed. Father was granted custody and Mother was granted chaperoned limited visitation.
Do you have data? Because I suspect that the vast majority of accusations of rape and sexual assault are true.
Nobody said what you think they said
Except Rah who said "That sort of thing apparently happens more often than anyone would like to think", without any data, and which implies that false allegations are common, so there's that.
Are we saying all the evidence should be examined before a judgment is rendered? I think social media just imploded.
Women that falsely accuse men of rape should get the same punishment the men would have gotten.
The problem with this sentiment is how you prove the accusation was false. If you're suggesting that any woman or child who levies an accusation should go to jail if the accused is found not guilty, then that's a fucking terrible idea. That will lead to an even lower % of reported rapes, as women and children will be even more afraid to report them and press charges/cooperate with law enforcement.
The % of reported rapes is already abysmally low. This would essentially scare off any woman or child from reporting rape in all but the most egregious of cases. Very, very, very bad idea.
I would hope it would not scare woman off but could see that to some extent. I would expect the burden of proof to to be similarly challenging in he said she said situations.
It would absolutely scare many women off. Rape is one of the most underreported crimes because women think they won't be believed and they don't want to go thru a trial and relive the experience over and over again.
Now you throw in the threat that they might have to go thru an entire SECOND criminal trial if no one believes them where they are the accused and they have to fight for their freedom, and you've got much fewer women willing to risk that.
Our system is set up to protect the rights of the accused. If fewer people report being raped then so be it. Imagine having a false allegation of being rapist or child molester.
Araiza devoted a significant part of his life to becoming the best in the world at something. He had his life's work taken from him. And who is going to sue to make this right? An 18 year old girl with no money?
If someone falsely accuses someone beyond a reasonable doubt, that person should never spend a day of their life outside of prison.
Agreed 10000000%. This dudes life was potentially ruined based off an outright lie. He should sue her, then sue the league and the bulls for back pay
There should be very stiff penalties for making false rape accusations. Are you ever really able to be “fully exonerated” by the public once accused, though?
How can it be that the DA does a more thorough job of investigating the incident than the SDPD? I mean, I’m glad they did, for Matt’s sake, but shouldn’t the police be clearing this mess up themselves before even bringing it to the DA’s office?
Bold of you to assume any police department in this country is staffed with anyone that cares about rape. The "Special Victims Unit" in the vast majority of cases is usually one 55 year old divorced misogynist dude whose main job is to gaslight the victim in order to reduce his workload so he can get to the bar sooner.
Logged in just to downvote that dumbass comment!
Sorry the truth hurts your feelings, cupcake. Law and Order SVU isn't a documentary, it's propaganda.
Even the DOJ says there's a lot of work to be done. Do some research, don't take my word for it.
https://cops.usdoj.gov/html/dispatch/04-2018/iacp_resources_article.html
some fools cant help themselves.
though youd hope people like this are just posting nonsense and actually realize that while dirtbags exist in all sectors, most cops are good people trying to do right. and that rapes are tough to prosecute in general, even more so when all parties involved are wildly drunk students
"Most" is a bit of an overestimation, I think. I don't doubt that there are a few good cops, but I have no reason to believe they're in the majority.
I think it's like a standard bell curve. Roughly 15 - 20% are sadistic psychopaths like the murder squad in the LAPD, the thousands of cops that have covered up lynchings, and the Baltimore Gun Trace Task Force.
Probably 60% fall somewhere in the middle, being varying degrees of corrupt. Not actively raping underage homeless girls, murdering unarmed boys on playgrounds, and throwing flashbangs in cribs with infants in them (all actual things that have happened in the US), but not reporting the cops who do stuff like that, whether from indifference or a desire to "not rock the boat."
And then 20% actively try to be good people and do their job to the best of their ability. This 20% also does 80% of the real work, just like in most industries.
But still, most don't report their colleagues illegal activities thanks to the thin blue line. It's not a coincidence that Omerta, the Southern Italian mafioso code of silence, has been incorporated into American policing culture.
The real issue is the damage that percentage of bad cops can do to society is orders of magnitude more than other professions. We're far closer to Mexico than people like to think.
So you actually think 15-20% of people are 'sadistic psychopaths'?
I feel sorry for you, life must be terrifying.
Nope. Just cops. The percentage of violent predators tends to increase when a job offers them unlimited access to violence. Like how there's a higher percentage of pedophiles in positions of power with access to and authority over children.
For example, the DA in Georgia was going to do absolutely nothing about Ahmaud Arbery getting lynched for two months. Charges were only pressed when the video of the murder came out. Do you think more than 15-20% of the cops in that Georgia town knew what happened? If so, how many reported it to the FBI? How many ignored it?
The vast, vast majority of people are unprincipled invertebrates, and a few are worse than that. Cops and otherwise. There's a reason I keep my circle smaller then the average wedding ring.
It's not terrifying, I'm excited to be living through an extinction event and I'm preemptively happy for this planet to be rid of humanity. I've always been a misanthrope, might as well embrace nihilism.
Carefree highway
Let me slip away, slip away on you
Plus one for Lightfoot reference! We lost a legend.
Sounds like some little frat boy got an MIP and now he's all F the cops...
You've got some boot polish on your lips. 😂
MgoBlaze -- you should move to a country like Russia that is much better than here... And to even suggest that cops are not mostly good people that do a tough job is moronic...
That's hilarious, not in the least because most American cops consume Russian propaganda like donuts. What's really moronic is arguing that more than a tiny minority of the people are inherently good people because they took a job in what in many regions amounts to a taxpayer funded gang.
Even just a little tiny bit of critical thinking and research into police corruption in this country would refute that, but you don't seem like the kind of person who's going to change their opinion based on a few facts. 😂
Remember what the police did when Emmett Till got lynched? Exactly. There are hundreds, if not thousands of similar cases in US history.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/21/protester-killed-georgia-cop-city-police-shooting
Cops executed a protester in Georgia a few months ago. Who's looking into that? That's right, literally fucking nobody, because there were FBI agents there. That's how every single police department in the country would operate if they could.
But please, go on about how most cops are somehow good people. Your insults and downvotes really matter to me, I promise. Definitely more than the centuries of hard evidence that you're selectively ignoring to make what barely resemble coherent points. 😂
Those cops run departments now, or trained people that do. It's not "a few bad apples," it's an entire blighted orchard with rotted roots and zero oversight.
Wow -- I bet you don't leave your house...... make sure your mom pays the utilities or else you will have to rely on the cops to keep you safe in that box behind Home Depot..
Where on the doll did the police hurt you? Snowflake!
You sound like a fragile cop. Shouldn't you be on a private facebook group somewhere arguing that Derek Chauvin is the real victim? 😂
"Most" is an overestimation, but apparently the "vast majority" of SVU cases are "usually one 55 year old divorced misogynist dude whose main job is to gaslight the victim in order to reduce his workload so he can get to the bar sooner." is an objective statement backed up by solid data?
Care to explain the basis of your estimate there?
Way to take obvious hyperbole literally. 😂
On mobile, so this will have a few edits. Not that that'll change the opinions of the police violence apologists on here.
By the vast majority I'm mainly referring to the rural/urban divide. The majority of police departments that handle rape accusations and investigations aren't equipped to investigate them, and they do so poorly. Compound that with rape being statistically less reported in rural areas.
https://www.fortmorgantimes.com/2021/10/28/right-to-report-includes-rural-communities/
"A 2010 survey conducted by the U.S. Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics found that 65% of rapes and sexual assaults in rural communities go unreported. This data sheds light on a problem experienced by survivors across the state, including right here in Morgan County.
Sexual assault survivors who live in rural areas, like Morgan County, face a unique set of challenges that discourage reporting; namely, lack of resources, geographic distance from law enforcement and medical services, and low population density. Because rural towns are close-knit communities, survivors and victims face a lack of anonymity that often makes it difficult to disclose information about themselves and their offender."
https://www.rainn.org/statistics/criminal-justice-system
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/19/us/police-sexual-assaults-maryland-scope/index.html
"According to research from Bowling Green State University, police officers in the US were charged with forcible rape 405 times between 2005 and 2013. That’s an average of 45 a year. Forcible fondling was more common, with 636 instances.
Yet experts say those statistics are, by no means, comprehensive. Data on sexual assaults by police are almost nonexistent, they say."
That's just cops charged of rape. Not accused. The number of rapist cops is far higher than that, the rest just got away with it. So which of those cops were the good ones?
Then there's the fact that many cops are essentially immune to domestic violence prosecution, despite being statistically more violent. It's almost, get this, like being a cop in America makes people violent and draws already violent people because of policing culture here!
Btw, friendly reminder that the Blue Lives Matter crowd has killed more cops than Antifa. 😂
So yes, "most" police departments are shit at investigating rape. Because that's what statistics, hard evidence, and countless personal experiences say. But please, do go on about how "most" cops are somehow good people with zero evidence to support that.
I mean if you actually care about rape victims, you can try educating yourself. But we both know your response was in bad faith and you care more about virtue signaling to the other people who support police violence than anything else.
Can’t hate, the guy has data backing his words up
"most cops are good people trying to do right"
You are obviously an upper middle class white guy
Most? If that were fact there would be no blue wall of silence and police corruption would be a virtual non-factor.
Exactly.
I'm surprised that you're surprised that some cops are ass at their jobs.
its done together (DA + SDPD) on a case like that. you get paperwork and talk with your detective. the two of you see what you can find on social media, for instance, track others in attendance, and of course looking for videos of anything relevant. you and the detective file search warrant after search warrant for things like text messages (they only stay in the system a few days for most carriers), cell phone locations/times, and any phones. you download the phones video/photos. you comb through the SANE report. you wait for DNA results. there is a lot that goes on and it's not fast.
from the article and reading between the lines, that young lady was not a victim. she has other, much larger issues for which she needs help, but she wasn't a victim. and yes, false allegations do happen, more than anyone wants to talk about, and they are devastating to the accused. good to remember that before we go all 'torch and pitchfork' on someone.
You mean wait some time for the facts to come out before forming an opinion you will refuse to change no matter what comes to light later?
Next you will say people are innocent until proven guilty or some such nonsense.
I know your comment is tic, but still. How many national cases have to come out the allegations are false. The pitchfork crowd landed the Duke Lacrosse team to sit in a cell and in the end not one ounce of the accusation was true.
We all made fun of Jameis Winston and his accuser the prosecution found she had dna of two men from the rape kit, all testimony of everyone there said she willing hooked up with Winston and another team mate while she denied she ever hooked up with the other dude and was suing Winston in civil court even after the prosecuting attorney stated there was no evidence backing up her story of rape.
Brian Banks exonerated of rape, after being convicted, after the school system settled for millions only for the accuser to later admit it never happened. He didn't even have sex with her.
Sexual assault is horrible and I believe everyone ever proven to falsely accuse should do the same time for the crime they accused the other person of. False allegations cost lots of money to investigate, prosecute and incarcerate if there is a conviction. All of that should be paid back by a false accuser. It also serves as a discredit against true victims of assault and rape.
These stories are why I try to wait for information to come out.
Delete this shit. It’s unrelated to Michigan, and it’s only going to provide a forum for idiots to complain about false rape accusations, which are incredibly rare (especially when compared to the number of sexual assaults that go unreported).
Guy is drafted by the NFL (yes, he's a punter, but he was still good enough to get drafted), gets accused of crime, gets released by team because of that accusation, and now the DA says the accused will not be charged.
It's not that crazy a story to be posting here, especially given his college coach is a former U-M head coach (there was a time last September where some thought this story would affect Hoke).
Yes, I read the article. it turns out our noble hero merely had consensual sex with a drunk 17 year old. Definitely a worthwhile board topic. Will provoke robust and intelligent discussion.
I mean you're probably right but nobody forced you to open this thread...