Opinion: Sexual assault allegations should always be taken seriously, but don’t rush to judgment

Source: sandiegouniontribune.com 12/15/22

In former SDSU football player Matt Araiza’s case, too many people seemed to automatically believe his accuser from the very beginning.

The harsh reality of being a suspect in a criminal case, especially in a case where the potential penalties include spending multiple years in prison and having to register as a sex offender for life, weighs differently on different types of people. For Matt Araiza, it weighed especially heavy. In a very short span of time, he went from winning college football’s highest award for a punter, breaking the NCAA record for the longest punt average in a season and being highly revered across the sports world, to getting cut by the Buffalo Bills and having to retain defense attorneys and private investigators to represent him in response to sexual assault allegations. Araiza and his family even suffered through a multitude of vile and disgusting death threats during this case, the details of which cannot be printed in this newspaper.

Sexual assault allegations should always be taken very seriously. However, simply because a complaining witness makes a sexual assault allegation does not automatically make it true. In Araiza’s case, too many citizens across the United States seemed to automatically believe his accuser from the very beginning. Many made up their minds right away and refused to wait and hear what decision the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office would make as to whether criminal charges should be filed. Those who kept an open mind found out last week that after a long, careful and detailed review of the evidence, no sexual assault charges would be filed against any of the suspects, including Araiza.

Read the full article

 

Related posts

Subscribe
Notify of

We welcome a lively discussion with all view points - keeping in mind...

 

  1. Submissions must be in English
  2. Your submission will be reviewed by one of our volunteer moderators. Moderating decisions may be subjective.
  3. Please keep the tone of your comment civil and courteous. This is a public forum.
  4. Swear words should be starred out such as f*k and s*t and a**
  5. Please avoid the use of derogatory labels.  Always use person-first language.
  6. Please stay on topic - both in terms of the organization in general and this post in particular.
  7. Please refrain from general political statements in (dis)favor of one of the major parties or their representatives.
  8. Please take personal conversations off this forum.
  9. We will not publish any comments advocating for violent or any illegal action.
  10. We cannot connect participants privately - feel free to leave your contact info here. You may want to create a new / free, readily available email address that are not personally identifiable.
  11. Please refrain from copying and pasting repetitive and lengthy amounts of text.
  12. Please do not post in all Caps.
  13. If you wish to link to a serious and relevant media article, legitimate advocacy group or other pertinent web site / document, please provide the full link. No abbreviated / obfuscated links. Posts that include a URL may take considerably longer to be approved.
  14. We suggest to compose lengthy comments in a desktop text editor and copy and paste them into the comment form
  15. We will not publish any posts containing any names not mentioned in the original article.
  16. Please choose a short user name that does not contain links to other web sites or identify real people.  Do not use your real name.
  17. Please do not solicit funds
  18. No discussions about weapons
  19. If you use any abbreviation such as Failure To Register (FTR), Person Forced to Register (PFR) or any others, the first time you use it in a thread, please expand it for new people to better understand.
  20. All commenters are required to provide a real email address where we can contact them.  It will not be displayed on the site.
  21. Please send any input regarding moderation or other website issues via email to moderator [at] all4consolaws [dot] org
  22. We no longer post articles about arrests or accusations, only selected convictions. If your comment contains a link to an arrest or accusation article we will not approve your comment.
  23. If addressing another commenter, please address them by exactly their full display name, do not modify their name. 
ACSOL, including but not limited to its board members and agents, does not provide legal advice on this website.  In addition, ACSOL warns that those who provide comments on this website may or may not be legal professionals on whose advice one can reasonably rely.  
 

3 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

His name will still be tarnished.
Many times the media will spend a lot of time on hot topics such as this,
but when the suspect is found innocent, then just a moment is spent declaring their innocence and the media will move on to the next carcass they can get the public to start feeding off of
Oftentimes people will continue to wonder ‘did they really do it and just pay their way out of it.’

“Always” is the most misused and misinterpreted word in the American Psyche.