The team announced it released Araiza, a little more than 48 hours after a civil lawsuit against him and two of his former University of San Diego teammates was made public. Discussing the team’s decision Saturday night, a somber Bills General Manager Brandon Beane said, “Our culture here is more important than winning football games.” “The last 48 hours have been very difficult for a lot of people,” Beane said. “It was tough. … We sympathize with this whole situation, all the parties involved, this young woman, what she went through. I really feel bad about this whole situation. After all, this is a legal situation, we don’t know all the facts and that’s what makes it difficult.
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“But right now,” Beane said, “we just think it’s the best move for everybody to move on from Matt and let him take care of this situation and focus on this.” Beane made it clear that Araiza’s version of events that night was different from what is alleged in the lawsuit. Araiza released a statement Friday night through his agent saying “the facts of the incident are not what is portrayed in the lawsuit” and that he was looking forward to “quickly setting the record straight.” Beane said the team was unaware of the allegations when it selected Araiza in the sixth round of the NFL draft in late April. “We didn’t know about it, and the league didn’t know about it,” Beane said. “We’ve been contacted by I can tell you double-digit teams at this point, and nobody had anything about it. Those names were sealed, wherever the investigation was at that point. Yeah, if we had that, and we get stuff like that from guys, you know how important character and culture is to Sean (McDermott) and me. And anything that would have been delayed, (Araiza) would have been off our board.”
Less than 24 hours after Bills coach Sean McDermott took the podium after the team’s final preseason game Friday night and addressed the situation, Araiza was gone. Beane said the team didn’t learn of the allegations until late July. The attorney for the plaintiff in the case, Daniel Gilleon, spoke with Kathryn D’Angelo, the Bills’ assistant general counsel, on July 31. Araiza’s attorney, Kerry Armstrong, said Friday that he believed Araiza had informed the Bills of the situation soon after a June 3 story appeared in the Los Angeles Times about the incident. The story did not include the names of the San Diego State players. A second story featuring an interview with the accuser was published on July 29. Armstrong said he was taken into custody by Araiza’s parents about six weeks ago. “We were trying not to rush to judgment,” Beane said. “And obviously Matt’s version was different. And you want to give everyone as many processes as you can. Again, we are not judge and jury. … “I would say it’s not easy, you’re trying to put facts around a legal situation, sometimes with limited information, and ultimately that’s where we are today with a decision.” The lawsuit was filed in San Diego County Superior Court. No criminal charges have been brought. The San Diego County District Attorney’s office confirmed Friday that it is reviewing the police investigation into the incident, but did not offer a timeline for a decision. According to the complaint, the teenager, identified as “Jane Doe,” had already been drinking with friends when she arrived at the off-campus home in San Diego and was “obviously intoxicated.” The teenager said Araiza, then 21, gave her a drink at the party that she believed “not only contained alcohol, but other intoxicants,” the lawsuit said. She also said she told Araiza she was in high school. He then led her to a side yard where he asked her to perform oral sex and then had sex with her, the suit said, before leading her inside. In a bedroom of the home, the suit alleges, Araiza and others participated in the rape. The others named in the complaint are Zavier Leonard and Nowlin Ewaliko. Leonard is on San Diego State’s fall roster as a redshirt freshman. Evaliko was on the team last year but is not on this fall’s roster. Lawyers for Leonard and Evalico have not commented. Buffalo Bills punter Matt Araiza during practice on Wednesday. Harry Scull Jr./Buffalo News The suit said she told her friends after the incident and went to police the next day. Gilleon, her lawyer, released copies of the journal entries she wrote after the Oct. 17 attack. The complaint said she waited for about five hours before an officer spoke to her. He was then taken to a hospital for rape tests. Asked if the release of the 11-page civil lawsuit brought to light details he didn’t know, Beane said: “Well, they were accusations,” Beane said. “Just make it clear exactly what it was. And at this point, it’s a real political affair. It’s not, that can happen. It’s something you have to answer and at that point we’re not the judges and the jury.” Asked why the team did not have follow-up conversations with Gilleon or attempt to speak with the woman after July 31, Beane said: “I would say we had the building blocks of what was going to be charged or reported. But at that point, it wasn’t a real deal. And there was, one of the things you see is, where is this criminally? That’s what you’re trying to learn. And so, we were just, again, trying to see everything. (Any) of those things there, if true, would be prohibitive to us. You know what I mean? So we didn’t need all that. We just had to try to gather as much evidence as we could in a limited time.” Added Beane: “All we were trying to do was use our resources in the time we had to put the pieces together and find out what happened, and Matt was very aware if something was off during our process. remove him. “Since this became a political matter two days ago, it was very serious and we felt it was in Matt’s best interest.”
The attorney for “Jane Doe” believes the Buffalo Bills made the right decision by releasing punter Matt Araiza on Saturday. However, Dan Gilleon believes the team took too long to make the decision. Gilleon wasn’t impressed with the Bills’ response last month. In a statement released to The News, the lawyer said: “The Buffalo Bills had no choice but to cut their young player after failing so badly in their response to our allegation: They ignored us, as if what I warned them about could be avoided if they just kept their heads in the sand. what do actuators do. “My client’s life was forever scarred in October 2021, but she handled herself with grace and dignity,” Gilleon said. “Not once did she express to me a desire to hurt her attackers out of revenge or hatred. She never asked for a pound of flesh. All she wanted was the kind of justice that could save other young women from the hell she experienced. “ The Bills issued a statement Thursday saying, in part, “Due to the serious nature of the complaint, we have conducted a thorough review of this matter.” Beane acknowledged: “I mean, as thorough as we can with what we’ve been able to get our hands on. We should probably keep saying that. Not completed. We don’t have much right now, we really don’t. This is very serious.” McDermott said he told Araiza of the team’s decision to release him Saturday morning: “He seemed to understand. I think when we spoke again this morning he agreed that this was probably the best…
