These two thing can be true.
You can believe women while also giving the accused the benefit of the doubt. Often times the only people who truly know what happen are the people involved and rarely do they have the same recollection of the events.
In this case, the DA said he didn’t have enough evidence to charge Araiza.
Former Buffalo Bills punter Matt Araiza and former teammates on the San Diego State football team will not face criminal charges in connection with an alleged gang rape of a minor that occurred at an off-campus party in October 2021, the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.
“Ultimately, prosecutors determined it is clear the evidence does not support the filing of criminal charges and there is no path to a potential criminal conviction,” the District Attorney’s Office said in a statement. “Prosecutors can only file charges when they ethically believe they can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The DA’s Office said the San Diego Police Department did not recommend charges be filed when the case was submitted in early August.
The Bills released Araiza on Aug. 27, two days after a civil lawsuit was filed accusing him of having sex with a then-17-year-old high school senior, who was under the age of consent in California, outside an off-campus party held at his residence in the early morning of Oct. 17, 2021, when he was a member of the SDSU football team. The lawsuit states that Araiza, who was 21 at the time, then took her inside the home, where at least three other men, including the other two defendants named in the suit — Araiza’s then-Aztecs teammates Zavier Leonard and Nowlin Ewaliko — were located and that she was repeatedly raped for about an hour and a half. The lawsuit states that nose, belly button and ear piercings were pulled out during the acts and that she was bleeding from her vagina.
The teen reported the rape to San Diego police the following day. Nine months later, on Aug. 5, 2022, San Diego police turned their investigation over to prosecutors for review.
There was some video evidence that, in the end, helped Araiza’s case. He is still being sued in civil court.