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. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Discuss Thrower:
.. believe it?
.. complete a sentence?
What is it exactly that you can't even?
Y’all a bunch of impotent, rape apologists incels.
Beyond a reasonable doubt is generally considered to be 90-95% certain. The fact the prosecutors refused to charge is far from a pronouncement of innocence. [Reply]
Originally Posted by RedinTexas:
There are two kinds of innocent. When they say you're innocent until proven guilty, it means that you're innocent in the eyes of the law. That doesn't necessarily mean you didn't actually do it though.
You are not wrong here. However, the eyes of the law are the closest thing we have to a scientific way to view innocence vs guilt. Otherwise, it casts a pretty wide net. Matt Araiza may have done it, but so may have Bob up the street from you or Ned down the street from me. Now, neither of those guys have been charged or accused of the crime, but that doesn't necessarily mean they didn't do it. There has to be some metric on which people can view or base their opinion of Araiza or any other accused person (even though we all know some people, right or wrong, will always be held responsible in the eyes of some others for things they are accused of) or else anyone accused of anything would have their entire life ruined, more so than they already do.
Dropping the charges allows them to refile the charges at a later date if more evidence comes to light. Prosecuting the guy and getting a not guilty verdict permanently enjoins the government from ever prosecuting the guy for that crime ever again.
Originally Posted by Carr4MVP:
Believe all women cost another man his career.
Innocent until proven guilty is a better system than social media mob rule.
Or "star athlete with money makes another rape go away". :-)
It's pretty naive to think this news means nothing happened.
He'll probably get signed somewhere anyway and can maybe take this as a hint that it's quite the privilege to play a sport for large sums of money... or else, *gasp*, he can find a real job.
(and I hate social media pressure leading to people immediately being fired before anything is figured out, but generally where there's smoke, there's fire) [Reply]
Yeah, this does nothing but make the police that handled the initial accusations look like even bigger dipshits. Araiza outright admitted to having sex with her already when she was under the age of consent. He then realized what a colossal fuckup that was and tried to walk it back but, well, probably a bit too late for that. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Why Not?:
Responded in the quoted section.
I understand your point about using the standard of innocent until proven guilty. That standard exists for the government though, and prevents them from taking away anyone's life, liberty, or property without due process of law. However, you and I are free to form our own opinions. For example, I believe that OJ Simpson was guilty of murdering Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. I believe a majority of the people would agree with me on that. However, the jury found him not guilty. Therefore the government cannot punish OJ for that crime, but you and I are perfectly free to believe whatever we want about his "innocence." [Reply]
Originally Posted by Cave Johnson:
Y’all a bunch of impotent, rape apologists incels.
Beyond a reasonable doubt is generally considered to be 90-95% certain. The fact the prosecutors refused to charge is far from a pronouncement of innocence.
so the fact that the prosecutors refused to charge is a pronouncement of being guilty?
The guy said people should be innocent until proven guilty and you're all like "oh ur a rape apologist and ur involuntary celibate!"
It's more of an involuntary celibate move to take a photo of a stripper from the outhouse and then claim to go to belize with her [Reply]
Originally Posted by Superturtle:
Yeah, this does nothing but make the police that handled the initial accusations look like even bigger dipshits. Araiza outright admitted to having sex with her already when she was under the age of consent. He then realized what a colossal ****up that was and tried to walk it back but, well, probably a bit too late for that.
Seems like a pretty open and shut case for statutory considering he admitted to it.
And the fact she was recorded lying about her age which never is considered a valid defense against statutory rape to boot. [Reply]
