Editor's Note: The following story contains details which some readers may find disturbing.
A San Diego judge on Thursday unsealed video recordings of the alleged gang rape at a house party near San Diego State University campus in 2021.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Fraser, however, stayed his ruling for two weeks to give the City Attorney's Office time to appeal the decision.
The City Attorney's Office argued that the video clips, about nine in all, are considered child pornography and police are legally not allowed to share them.
The videos reportedly showed a then 17-year-old girl engaging in sex acts with several men. The teenager said she was gang raped by members of the football team at the time, naming three of them in a civil lawsuit as Matt Araiza, Nowlin "Pa-a" Ewaliko and Zavier Leonard.
Dick Semerdjian, attorney for Araiza, said the videos will definitively prove that his client was not in the room when the alleged assault happened. Araiza's attorneys are also asking for his cell phone data to be unsealed.
"We believe that they, in fact, will not only exonerate Matt Arazia because we have cell phone data that he was not there at the time," Semerdjian said. "But, secondly, that there was no … sexual action that was objected to by the alleged victim.”
Araiza has maintained that he had consensual sex with the young woman in the side yard of the house but was not there when the alleged assault happened.
Dan Gilleon, attorney for the now 18-year-old woman, opposes the videos' release, saying they are child pornography.
"Jane Doe wants the truth to come out and supports the release of any records except for the child pornography Matt Araiza is seeking," he said in a statement to KPBS.
Brian Watkins, a civil defense attorney with no connection to the case, said the videos are not child pornography but evidence.
"That's an inflammatory word that they're trying to use to suppress that evidence,” he said.
He said this evidence might help Araiza as well as the two men accused.
“The essence of rape is the lack of consent,” Watkins said. “And the evidence shows that she did, in fact, consent to whatever actions did occur. And the fact that Matt Araiza was not even present is even stronger for Matt Araiza's case.”
Last December, the San Diego District Attorney's Office declined to file charges against the three men, citing a lack of evidence.
In a transcript obtained by KPBS of the audio recording of the meeting between Deputy District Attorney Trisha Amador and Jane Doe on Dec. 7, a day before the DA's office announced no charges would be filed, Amador told Doe that a witness said they saw Araiza leaving the party.
Amador also told the young woman that the videos weren't enough to prove her case.
"In looking at the videos on the sex tape, I absolutely cannot prove any forcible sexual assault happened," she said.
Gilleon has argued that because the young woman was intoxicated, it was impossible for her to give consent. Watkins said the video evidence calls into question her credibility.
"The problem with that argument is that the tape contradicts all of her original story," he said. "And so when you have contradictions, and she's not credible anymore, we can't believe anything that she says that allegedly occurred off tape — especially when it's inconsistent with what we see on tape."
Araiza was the star punter for the Aztec football team and was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the 2022 draft but was released by the team when the rape allegations surfaced.
