1-Man’s Opinion on Sports-Thursday “Aztecs Rape Case”
“SDSU Football–The Rape Case”
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No one came out a winner in this San Diego State Gang Rape investigation by the police.
No one should feel good with the District Attorney’s decision not to hand out rape charges to legendary punter Matt Araiza and two other former teammates, now gone from the program.
There’s a stain that stretches from the football offices, to the players, to the girl who was raped.
13-months after a 17-year old Grossmont High student showed up at a Halloween party on campus, her life is forever changed. She alledged a gang rape, in which she had sex with Araiza, who led her to a room in an apartment where she was alledgedly assaulted for nearly 90-minutes by two other players.
Police investigated the case for nearly 8-months, and turned the probe over to the DA’s office for their decision. But the San Diego PD recommended no charges be filed..
The DA spent nearly 5-months re-evaluating all the information, and reached the decision not to go forward.
The DA served 10-warrants, interviewed 35-people who were at the party. They had DNA tests, and a video of the acts that night. They also had a taped phone call days after the incident with Araiza and the girl.
They examined evidence and tried to connect the dots tht might have led to charges of sexualt assault, sodomy, copulation or rape. They could not connect the dots..
There are so many conflicting angles to the story.
The girl’s drunken state. Being in and out of consciousness. The video of her bragging she was 18 years of age. A past history of possible sexual encounters, and allegations of a threatened lawsuit in aother case.
The intoxication levels of all those involved led to a wide variety of descriptions of what really happened. Stories that seemed to change as followup interviews occurred.
What was on that video and what it portrayed. What was on a taped phone call with the girl and the kicker.
The fine line between consexual sex or stuatory rape. What was agreed to with one player, what happened with the others.
No one should feel good about this mess.
It took the shine off the opening of Snapdragon stadium. The top two people on the football side, JD Wicker and Brady Hoke sullied their reputations with how they acted at the stormy season opening press conference.
Matt Araiza’s stupidity of the drunken moment that will stain his resume going forward, in addition to having lost a year of his NFL career.
The girl’s life forever changed as a brutal victim of a gang sex incident.
The family says the lawsuit against the players will go forward, so this case is far from over.
And what will forever be part of this, nothing good came from what happened on October 17th and what has happened since.
Lives impacted, careers derailed, reputations ruined. A night of bad decisions. No one won. Everyone’s lost.
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These days with the consent requirements, videos, taped call with detectives listening, STDs, and everything else,it is interesting that Stephan did not press charges. She is not a Soros puppet. What is the missing piece that we don’t know that kept the police from pressing charges? The civil trial should bring out more information.