When officials place football above a girl’s life
SAN DIEGO >> A stench blankets America’s Finest City, emanating from San Diego State University.
Three former SDSU football players are accused of assaulting a then17-year-old high school senior at an off-campus Halloween party on Oct. 17, 2021.
The fact that the story came to light only recently — despite efforts by SDSU, the San Diego Police Department and the San Diego County district attorney’s office to keep the public in the dark — is part of the scandal.
The teen and her father went to the media because they said they feared a coverup. Things began happening in June, when the Los Angeles Times first reported on the case. Bad publicity tends to grease the wheels of justice.
The family filed a lawsuit against the three men accused of gang rape.
University leaders, starting with President Adela de la Torre, have failed this test with flying colors.
Perhaps they were blinded by the aura of the “Punt God.” That’s the moniker bestowed upon 22-year-old Matt Araiza, an SDSU standout whose punts last year helped the Aztecs achieve the best record the team has had in years — 12 wins, 2 losses.
Araiza was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in April, named the starting punter and given a fouryear contract worth nearly $4 million. The Bills’ management knew about the rape allegation. But it wasn’t until the lawsuit was filed that the team kicked the punter off the roster.
The lawsuit alleges that Araiza gave the minor a drink at the party after she told him she was in high school. She believes the drink “not only contained alcohol, but other intoxicating substances.” The complaint further alleges that Araiza had sex with the minor and then brought her to a room where she was repeatedly raped for an hour and a half by at least two other men. Also named in the complaint are Zavier Leonard and Nowlin “Pa’a” Ewaliko.
According to the lawsuit, the alleged victim went in and out of consciousness but remembers that the men took turns assaulting her. When she emerged from the room bruised and bloodied, she says, she told friends that she had been raped. The next day, she went to the San Diego Police Department to report the alleged crime and then went to a hospital for a rape exam. She recorded memories of the assault in a diary. Meanwhile, her father went to the SDSU campus police department to report the incident.
The university says that San Diego police asked it to not investigate, because it might interfere with the criminal inquiry. The school agreed, which was a mistake.
According to the lawsuit, detectives arranged for the alleged victim to call Araiza, who admitted having sex with her and suggested she get tested for a sexually transmitted disease. But when she asked Araiza directly whether they had sex, he apparently got spooked and contradicted himself. He claimed not to “remember anything that happened that night,” and then he hung up on her.
For SDSU, the timing is inconvenient. De la Torre recently cut the ribbon at the football team’s new home, Snapdragon Stadium, a $310 million gem that anchors a multibillion-dollar campus development project.
This week, SDSU athletic director John David Wicker and head football coach Brady Hoke held a news conference where they said they would take questions only about football. When reporters repeatedly asked about the alleged rape, the two men walked out.
Wicker and Hoke are on the public payroll. They should have both been fired on the spot.
I believe the alleged victim. How unfortunate that, when this poor girl had her life destroyed, the timing was bad for the university and its precious football program.
It’s always the right time to do the right thing. And in this story — besides the girl and her family — no one even came close.