SAN DIEGO — Attorneys defending former NFL punter Matt Araiza and other ex-Aztecs football players will be allowed to view sex videos taken at a party where a 17-year-old girl claims she was raped.
No criminal charges were filed in the case involving five former San Diego State University football players. But the girl’s lawsuit is ongoing, where she claims she was gang raped in a bedroom.
San Diego police have the sex videos in question, recorded at the off-campus party in October 2021.
“SDPD is in possession of 12 short clips, we'll call video clips. They run anywhere from five seconds to maybe less than a minute,” said Deputy City Attorney Jill Cristich in civil court Friday.
Cristich said her office cannot release the videos to attorneys absent a court order, because they show a child engaged in sex acts with several San Diego State Aztec football players.
“They depict a sexual encounter, engagement act with a minor,” said Cristich.
Araiza admits to consensual sex with the teenager on the side of the party house, but denies entering a bedroom, where the teen alleges she was gang raped while intoxicated.
She is identified only as Jane Doe in court filings.
“We're not going to publicize and we're not going to distribute these videotapes,” Araiza’s attorney, Dick Semerdjian, told the judge.
Araiza's attorneys said they need the videos to prove the sex acts were consensual, and that Araiza was never in the bedroom where the alleged rape took place.
“Those videotapes will tell us whether she was raped or not raped. And we believe that she was consenting, and a willing participant to what was going on in that bedroom that night,” said Semerdjian.
Attorneys representing Jane Doe said the videos don't actually show any of the football players involved – according to a description of the videos presented during a December 2022 meeting with a deputy district attorney -- and there's no point in releasing them, even with a protective order prohibiting dissemination to the public.
“It's point of view camera angles of my client only. They are 10-second clips. They show no identity of any of the individuals... And that's all you see is my client,” Doe’s attorney, Philip Altieri, told the judge.
In the end, Judge Matthew C. Braner ordered that both sides can view the videos, but for now, the attorneys will not be provided copies.
“Don't you think it would behoove both parties to know what's on those tapes? Maybe it's all irrelevant. They're covered by a protective order,” said Judge Braner.
The judge will rule later on whether attorneys will receive copies of the videos to use during depositions and during a potential trial.
A status conference in the case is set in the case for August 4.
WATCH RELATED: Matt Araiza appears in San Diego court for hearing to unseal sex videos (April 2023).