McDermott/Beane press conference 8/27: Matt Araiza released

[Augie]

5 minutes ago, Limeaid said:

 

Based on words of attorney of claimant calling the Bills an "enabler" and I think for the money pot for legal costs the attorney firm may be going after the Bills.

 

 

As typical in cases for companies for which bad publicity can cost a lot they will claim legal costs and try for a settlement.  They will claim legal costs expanded due to Bills inaction and should be liable for it. How much do you think laywers bills be for year and half investigation?

 

Ever see the movie Ransom? They steal his kid, and rather than play that game, they say I’ll pay the $10 million (or whatever it was)….to anyone who delivers you to me.

 

I know that won’t happen, but it would not break my heart if the billionaires club showed this guy for what he is. I’m OK if he were to lose his license to practice. I don’t know the exact angle, and it would have to be discreet and indirect, but I would smile. I’m no expert, but IMO he has not represented his client in a way that represented her best interests. 

[Warcodered]

1 minute ago, UKBillFan said:

 

Yes, if I recall correctly from the lawsuit, the claim is that Arazia and the alleged victim had consensual sex outside and then he took her inside and joined in the gang rape with others.

From the lawsuit the victim claims to have told him she was a minor making it non consensual automatically and also claims to have been drugged by him.

[UKBillFan]

6 minutes ago, Warcodered said:

From the lawsuit the victim claims to have told him she was a minor making it non consensual automatically and also claims to have been drugged by him.

 

Apologies, that's right, it does.

 

ETA - Think I'm finding it difficult to keep the statutory rape offence in mind as in the UK the age of consent is 16.

Edited August 28, 2022 by UKBillFan

[Punching Bag]

1 minute ago, Warcodered said:

From the lawsuit the victim claims to have told him she was a minor making it non consensual automatically and also claims to have been drugged by him.

 

She claims she suspected she was drugged but since she did not go to hospital until next day much of the evidence will be gone if it was ever there.

[Tiberius]

4 minutes ago, Limeaid said:

 

She claims she suspected she was drugged but since she did not go to hospital until next day much of the evidence will be gone if it was ever there.

I'm sure they have interviewed her friends. Were the drinking heavily before they arrived at the party? Interviewing the friends of the accused, those at the party, etc. could help find out if these guys were into doing things like this. 

 

This publicity could also bring other victims forward. Maybe this girl was the first to go to the police. 

 

Maybe there is a good reason the investigation is taking time 

[Beck Water]

45 minutes ago, UKBillFan said:

Not so sure - surely that suggests she was incapcitated which implies she could not give consent? Though they'll have to rely on witnesses and the rape kit to get to the bottom of what happened.

 

It definitely says she was unable to give consent, and yes that means they'll have to rely on witnesses and other evidence - photos, videos etc to build a case.  It's harder.

 

45 minutes ago, UKBillFan said:

And that could be why the alleged victim's attorney actions are suggesting that Araiza is not to be issued criminal charges. If both parties agree they had consensual sex earlier in the evening, and there are no witnesses placing him in the room (which is what the defence attorney claims) then they would possibly struggle to acquire enough evidence to charge.

 

I will add that the DA office obviously has all the evidence, and the above is piecing social media comments with the excellent post from an attorney made yesterday on here, breaking down the case. So I may be well off.

 

I think you're talking about this post, which I agree was a rare insight by someone who knows something. 

 

She or he says "I infer that there aren’t going to be charges forthcoming against MA, which is interesting because so-called statutory rape is practically a strict liability crime, and the proffering of an affirmative defense doesn’t usually dissuade a prosecutor from levying charges. The accuser’s/victim’s attorney would be in the loop regarding the charging decision, and the likely decision not to charge resulted in the filing of the civil suit. In a case like this, a prosecutor is not going to want to expose their complainant to adverse examination in a civil arena, either at trial or in depositions. You don’t want your witness pinned down under oath in advance of your trial, especially given the much higher criminal burden of proof."

 

That seems reasonable on the face of it, but this lawyer has already done a bunch of things that (as I understand it from practicing attorneys) are unexpected or considered poor practice.  For example, putting her journal out on the Interwebs; publicizing settlement discussions; etc.

 

So possibly, the reasonable inferences of an experienced attorney may be less predictive here. 

 

The victim's attorney states that they've heard nothing from the DA or the police

 

 

15 minutes ago, Warcodered said:

From the lawsuit the victim claims to have told him she was a minor making it non consensual automatically and also claims to have been drugged by him.

 

Gene is back!  Apparently he disagrees with a factual statement of claims in the lawsuit.  🙄

 

29 minutes ago, Tiberius said:

In the statement the lawyer claims that Araiza raped her

 

Claims he was in the room where she was raped, anyway.

Edited August 28, 2022 by Beck Water

[oldmanfan]

31 minutes ago, What a Tuel said:

 

No it wasnt. It can be thorough, find everything they could have access to, and still not have all the facts. 

 

The media and your comments are trying to make a fiasco out of probably the best handling this could have been done short of knowing about it predraft.

 

Bills org found out about it in July. 

At that point it was just an accusation.

They would not have drafted him if they knew of it before the draft.

They released him 2-3 days after civil charges were filed.

 

What more could they have done? The bills org is not a court. It doesnt have the time, resources, or access to witnesses/evidence to determine what is true here. 

 

Lets just move on. But we won't because the media has stories for ages to write about it to stir things up now.

 

 

I think the Bills did OK with this situation.  But even Beane said yesterday they could have done better.  Thorough implies a rigorous examination and it seems they fell a little short.

[Delusional Bills Optimist]

4 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

The victim's attorney states that they've heard nothing from the DA or the police.

I get that things might be done differently in different jurisdictions, but I find it unfathomable that the prosecution would not keep their complainant apprised of the status of the investigation, since their case completely hinges on this individual. Something is just very, very odd here. 

[JDubya76]

Since this no longer has anything to do with the Bills, I’m going to turn the channel from this drama and watch something else. Truman show style. 
 

if it sounds callous, it is not my intention. I just don’t have the bandwidth. On average, there are 463,634 victims (age 12 or older, male and female) of rape and sexual assault each year in the United States and neither the Buffalo Bills organization nor any of their players had anything to do with 463,633 of them.
 

So, having the Bills organization who is not equipped to face this issue take 30-ish days to investigate unsubstantiated claims about their employee is not egregious. Neither is waiting 2 1/2 days to read through the civil filing. Especially when you realize they had to fly 100 people to Charlotte to play a professional football game, fly everyone home and then have meetings with legal about the issue with the appropriate department heads.
 

It seems to me that they did what they needed to do the way they do everything. Thorough, thoughtful, measured, calculated, and their decision is final. They crossed the Ts and dotted the umlauts.
 

This story no longer has anything to do with the Buffalo Bills unless you are Dan Gilleon, Jay Skurski or Matthew Fairbairn(sp) and they are just looking to remain relevant in the media cycle.

 

 

Edited August 28, 2022 by JDubya76

[BiloxiBills]

Matt who?  Insert Bills hype video here!

[JoPoy88]

37 minutes ago, Beck Water said:

 

It definitely says she was unable to give consent, and yes that means they'll have to rely on witnesses and other evidence - photos, videos etc to build a case.  It's harder.

 

 

I think you're talking about this post, which I agree was a rare insight by someone who knows something. 

 

She or he says "I infer that there aren’t going to be charges forthcoming against MA, which is interesting because so-called statutory rape is practically a strict liability crime, and the proffering of an affirmative defense doesn’t usually dissuade a prosecutor from levying charges. The accuser’s/victim’s attorney would be in the loop regarding the charging decision, and the likely decision not to charge resulted in the filing of the civil suit. In a case like this, a prosecutor is not going to want to expose their complainant to adverse examination in a civil arena, either at trial or in depositions. You don’t want your witness pinned down under oath in advance of your trial, especially given the much higher criminal burden of proof."

 

That seems reasonable on the face of it, but this lawyer has already done a bunch of things that (as I understand it from practicing attorneys) are unexpected or considered poor practice.  For example, putting her journal out on the Interwebs; publicizing settlement discussions; etc.

 

So possibly, the reasonable inferences of an experienced attorney may be less predictive here. 

 

The victim's attorney states that they've heard nothing from the DA or the police

 

 

 

Gene is back!  Apparently he disagrees with a factual statement of claims in the lawsuit.  🙄

 

 

Claims he was in the room where she was raped, anyway.

The opinion from the attorney you linked to here is spot on - at this point the chance of criminal charges seems slim.

[B Rob]

How about we talk about team related things? Kid is off the team now and he was a punter/holder. 

 

I would much rather see other posts at the top of the list. Let's move on from this please. 

 

If this needs to continue could we move it off the team board? 

 

Again this is all for a punter. People didn't crucify big Ben or Kobe. No one here offering opinions has the information needed to speculate. 

 

Go bills

[Warcodered]

3 minutes ago, B Rob said:

How about we talk about team related things? Kid is off the team now and he was a punter/holder. 

 

I would much rather see other posts at the top of the list. Let's move on from this please. 

 

If this needs to continue could we move it off the team board? 

 

Again this is all for a punter. People didn't crucify big Ben or Kobe. No one here offering opinions has the information needed to speculate. 

 

Go bills

Probably going to just be bouncing around with this unless something else happens until cuts start.

[JoPoy88]

21 minutes ago, B Rob said:

How about we talk about team related things? Kid is off the team now and he was a punter/holder. 

 

I would much rather see other posts at the top of the list. Let's move on from this please. 

 

If this needs to continue could we move it off the team board? 

 

Again this is all for a punter. People didn't crucify big Ben or Kobe. No one here offering opinions has the information needed to speculate. 

 

Go bills

feel free to start a topic on anything you like. This has only been pinned for a day. 

[boater]

I hate to jump in 38 pages in, but Araiza's fate was sealed with:

Quote

According to court filings, Araiza told his 17-year-old rape accuser in a police-monitored phone call that she needed to be tested for chlamydia

I'm sure his mid-game tweet Friday didn't help his position with management.

[Boatdrinks]

2 hours ago, Beck Water said:

 

I think McDermott has witnessed his share of swarming hyenas in the press and on social media, including in response to situations like the Shady McCoy bar fight and home invasion accusations or even lesser things like Josh Allen's texts or Jake Fromm's texts.

 

I don't think he says "It’s not easy to hear about some of the things that I’ve heard about over the last, several hours, say. Haven’t slept a lot to be honest" because of press and social media clamor.

 

McDermott also wasn't the only person shaken - remember Keenum "Still processing a lot of it" and Barkley "Some of that stuff is hard to read.  There's a lot to work through"

 

But YMMV

He also probably knows that a civil suit is going to be gussied up to sound as heinous and traumatizing as possible. Such things are written by attorneys- with all that implies. He’s a religious guy though , so maybe not as coarsened as some of us by what’s out there in the popular culture. 

[Warcodered]

4 minutes ago, boater said:

I'm sure his mid-game tweet Friday didn't help his position with management.

That may have well crystalized why it was very much time to move on, from a team perspective they might want to control exactly how any message gets out, but that's not reasonable to expect for someone in this situation.

[Boatdrinks]

59 minutes ago, JDubya76 said:

Since this no longer has anything to do with the Bills, I’m going to turn the channel from this drama and watch something else. Truman show style. 
 

if it sounds callous, it is not my intention. I just don’t have the bandwidth. On average, there are 463,634 victims (age 12 or older, male and female) of rape and sexual assault each year in the United States and neither the Buffalo Bills organization nor any of their players had anything to do with 463,633 of them.
 

So, having the Bills organization who is not equipped to face this issue take 30-ish days to investigate unsubstantiated claims about their employee is not egregious. Neither is waiting 2 1/2 days to read through the civil filing. Especially when you realize they had to fly 100 people to Charlotte to play a professional football game, fly everyone home and then have meetings with legal about the issue with the appropriate department heads.
 

It seems to me that they did what they needed to do the way they do everything. Thorough, thoughtful, measured, calculated, and their decision is final. They crossed the Ts and dotted the umlauts.
 

This story no longer has anything to do with the Buffalo Bills unless you are Dan Gilleon, Jay Skurski or Matthew Fairbairn(sp) and they are just looking to remain relevant in the media cycle.

 

 

Don’t forget the local news outfits , who feel the need to get on the virtue signaling train . I briefly caught a bit of WGRZ’s nonsense before I had a chance to change the channel after the golf tournament. They wondered why the “ victims” words weren’t enough to release Araiza earlier. Pure garbage, but not unexpected from our terrible local media. 

[ganesh]

6 hours ago, T master said:

Okay I have some questions .

 

So what happens if this is a case of a gold digger (which we have seen before) & Ariaza is exonerated of any of these accusations & it is found out that this person is nothing but a gold digging liar will the Bills take a hit for not standing behind a innocent person a team mate that is suppose to be part of the family as it is ?

 

It just strikes me as very funny that when someone comes into a lot of money then & only then the accusations come about & IF IF IF this is that case it can very well ruin his life . 

 

What happened to innocent until proven guilty ? I know the Bills & the NFL have a image to uphold & these accusations are very VERY bad but if there is the  possibility that he is innocent will this be a knock against what Beane & McD have preached about family & having each others back in this teams culture .

 

 

I think the take from the Bills has been simply "This is very serious stuff and Matt needs to spend his time to resolve it and not worry about football".   They are not judging him as guilty or not as that MUST be determined only by the court of the law.  

 

The Bills will crawl out by saying that "they were glad they gave the opportunity to Matt without any distraction to pursue and prove himself innocent".   

 

Finally, the NFL is talking about a 6th round draft pick who is a Punter.  I think that is a big difference.

[Southern_Bills]

23 hours ago, julian said:

I work for one of the most recognizable companies on the planet here in Canada and we had a co worker arrested and charged with defrauding the company insurance and collecting monies illegally.

 

 He was not only not fired but was back at work awaiting his day in court lol. 
 

crazy

 

Wow, I figure a leave of absence is in order at least lol.