EDITOR'S NOTE: Some details may be considered disturbing
SAN DIEGO - Warrants used in the investigation into allegations of gang rape against former San Diego State University football players have been unsealed.
The warrants were unsealed after a judge granted the request of several media outlets, including reporting partner 10 News and the San Diego Union-Tribune. The warrants sought to obtain electronic data from several companies, including Google, T-Mobile and Instagram from four now-former football players accused of gang-raping a 17-year-old girl at an off-campus house party in October of 2021.
Three of the men, All-American punter Matta Araiza, Nowlin Ewaliko and Zavier Leonard, are named in a civil suit filed by the girl and her family. Ewaliko was the subject of the last warrant, seeking information related to a child pornography case that has since been considered unrelated to the rape allegations.
The victim claims she was in a room at the party with several men whom she did not consent to have sex with but did not say no or fight them off because she feared she would be seriously hurt if she did not cooperate. While the warrants do highlight inconsistencies in the narrative between the victim, her friends and others, all confirm the victim appeared bloody, bruised and disheveled when she left the party. An exam performed on the teen also found the DNA of at least two unknown persons and several more were found on her undergarments.
Araiza, Ewaliko, and Leonard also admitted to having sexual relations with the victim during phone calls set up and monitored by San Diego Police, but at all three said their encounters with her were consensual.
Despite months of investigating, the San Diego County District Attorney's Office decided not to pursue criminal charges because there was "no path to a potential criminal conviction.” The civil suit is still pending, with a trial date set for October.
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