SAN DIEGO —
Former star collegiate punter Matt Araiza filed a defamation lawsuit Friday against the woman who reported she was gang raped by him and other former college football players at a party near San Diego State University in fall 2021.
The suit alleges that the woman “knowingly made false statements with a reckless disregard for the truth” when she spoke to San Diego police and later to local and national media outlets.
Araiza — who lost his new NFL job after the woman filed a lawsuit against him and others nearly a year ago — claims in the document that the woman’s “(d)efamatory (s)tatements caused and continue to cause significant past and future economic losses, shame and mortification.”
His lawsuit, which The San Diego Union-Tribune reviewed Friday, does not specify how much money Araiza is seeking.
The woman’s attorney, Dan Gilleon, said he he had not see the lawsuit yet “and we don’t litigate in the media.” Although the lawsuit publicly names the woman, the Union-Tribune generally does not identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault.
Araiza’s suit comes as the woman pursues a lawsuit, also in San Diego Superior Court.
San Diego police investigated the allegations for several months before handing the case to the District Attorney’s Office. Last December, the office...
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