Matt Ariza, thanks for coming
in and talking with us.
Can you kind of set the stage for me?
October 2021, this party off campus,
college area. Why were you there?
Well, thank you for having me. First of all,
it was meant to be a celebration.
We were having a great year and one
of the guys just threw a party at his
house and invited all the guys over.
And like I said, it was meant to
be a celebration of us and all the
work we've put in and it turned
out to be a pretty dark stain on.
The whole school and the football
program for sure. How
long were you at the party
before you met this girl?
Not long. Maybe. Maybe an hour.
Had you? How much had you drank
at the party before you? I was
drinking. I had a designated driver,
but I was not not drunk by any means.
How many drinks do you think you'd have? I'm
not sure. I couldn't give you an
exact answer. It was long time ago. Do
you remember what you were drinking?
I do not exactly know.
OK. How did you end up meeting this teenager?
I was speaking with one of my teammates
and and she kind of **** into her
conversation and introduced herself
and what did she say?
She gave us her name.
She she started being very forward.
It was very clear what she wanted.
She was she was being very flirtatious.
Flirtatious and forward sexually, yes.
And at some point you ended up
going on the side of the house
with her having sex with her.
How did that? Come to be.
Did you lead her under the side of
the house or how did you end up on
the side of the house with her?
I went to the side of
the house to to urinate.
Usually the bathrooms are are full
of a long line so not not worth it
to wait in that line. She follows me.
We have a brief encounter.
We go back to our friends, say bye.
I'm there for maybe an
hour more and that was it.
How long after you met this girl did?
What was the time period between?
The time you met her and you,
the time you ended up having sex
with her on the side of the house,
15 minutes or so. 15 minutes.
Really. Yeah, I believe so.
According to the lawsuit,
you engaged in oral sex with
her or she engaged in oral sex
with you and sexual intercourse.
Is that correct?
So that part of the lawsuit is true.
Did you ever ask how old she was?
I did she in in what she was telling me she?
Made it clear that she was
very experienced sexually.
And that led me to ask the ask
the question of how old she was.
And she told me she was 18,
looked me in the eyes.
Why did you ask how old she was? I mean,
that goes along with sexual experience.
I mean that goes along with time and age.
It wasn't her appearance or the fact
that she had braces or she looked young.
What was the reason
why you asked how old she was?
So what was the reason you asked her age.
Like I said, she was claiming to be
very sexually experienced and that
was where I went in the conversation.
Okay and you wanted to know that
before you engaged in sex with her.
No. That was just a a natural question
following what had how she had
been acting to be honest with you
Okay. Very good during the and and
you and this this sex on the side
of the house was consensual, right.
Very much so. I mean we were.
Within an earshot of everyone else.
If at any point she didn't want to be there,
she could have walked back under oath.
Both of her friends have admitted
she came back, bragged about it.
Was happy. Was dancing.
So beyond consensual but enthusiastic,
was she taking videos with her cell phone?
Was anybody taking videos of
this particular sexual encounter?
No, no. The only videos
I know of were outside.
One of her friends took a
video that kind of shows,
shows the whole party.
We got it in one of our depositions.
You've been deposed in the.
I have not. No. I was scheduled to
be and her attorney canceled it
because, you know,
her cell phone was lost,
as you probably know,
and was never found.
Did you ever see her with her
cell phone at that point?
No, I never. I never did.
That part of the story is very
confusing from what I've heard.
Her and her friends came back later
that night looking for the cell phone.
The owner of the house asked to
see the the Find My iPhone app,
and that app put it at a
couple houses down the road.
So we're kind of confused
about that whole thing,
the lawsuit says.
You gave her a drink.
Did you give her a drink?
Absolutely not.
Did you ever see her drinking? No.
Did you think she appeared drunk?
No, she didn't.
She didn't stumble.
She didn't slur her words.
She was looking me in the eyes,
making sense and.
Her friends are admitting
that also underoath.
OK, very good. And she.
But she was very overly flirtatious,
talking about sex, telling you she
was 18 but she didn't appear drunk.
OK, because I've seen this YouTube
video of her that was recorded the night
before at a completely different party
where she's telling people she's 18.
She's going into very graphic
details about her past sexual.
Encounters. Have you seen that video?
I have. Yes, Sir.
Is that the way she was acting
the night you met her?
No. No more contained for sure
that that video is pretty wild
to you. That she appeared
drunk in that video.
Borderline. I don't know.
I haven't ever met her outside of a party.
I don't have anything to
compare her personality to.
I think that's pretty key in being
able to identify something like that.
The fact that she was so overly
flirtatious and talking about sex,
that didn't indicate to you
that she might be drunk.
I mean, she was a teenager and you know,
maybe even now looking back,
do you think that she acts
like that when she drinks?
That's a very common
thing at San Diego State.
If if the average Persian could
go to a party at San Diego State,
this whole story would make
a lot more sense.
This is not uncommon at all.
It's common to have sex with a
stranger 15 minutes after meeting them
for for women to act like that
at parties, Yes, it is common.
OK, very good.
I've seen also this DA recording
which when did it can't come out,
you know last month and it was
distributed and it it basically
records the DA telling her why,
why they are not filing criminal charges.
Have you heard that recording?
I have, yes, Sir.
It also references some videos
that were cell phone videos
that were taken in the bedroom.
Have you seen any of
those cell phone videos? I
have not seen them.
In one of my previous interviews.
I misspoke and said that I had seen them.
That is not true.
I just read the couple descriptions we have.
We have descriptions from the police.
Then we have the transcript and
what's what's described from the
audio you just you just mentioned.
OK, very good.
When the DA announced they were
not filing charges against you,
what was your reaction?
What was your parents reaction?
We were happy, but with the evidence
that that we had been told about,
it was pretty clear that
that would be the decision.
Did you after this,
the SACS acts on the side of the house,
did you leave right away,
pretty shortly after?
I've seen some comments that maybe
you left at the end of the party or
do you know when the party broke up?
This was around 12:30 in the morning
during this party that this,
the sex acts occurred on
the side of the house
quite a bit prior to that.
Prior. When do you think you left?
Between 12:00 and 12:30 And from
what I've heard, I believe the party
ended at 2:00 AM around there. Which
way did you take when you left the party?
I believe I went out. There's there's
a side gate kind of in the back,
left side of the House of the backyard.
Did you enter that way as well?
No, I went in through the front of the house.
So you went in through the front door,
but you left through the side gate
and you had designated drivers.
I did because you may have been tipsy
because I had something to drink it.
I wasn't going to going to risk that
and these individuals didn't
have anything to drink.
That was the plan, right? OK.
Do you have any regrets about that night?
Well, obviously based on the consequences,
yeah, I would have rather done
anything else that night for sure.
But I can look myself in the mirror
and know I didn't do anything evil.
Never meant to hurt anyone,
never did anything to hurt anyone that night.
Do you take any responsibility?
You know there's anything rest
on your shoulders for what
happened that night or or the
for the consequences that I have faced?
Yeah, I mean, do you take any responsibility
for your actions that night with a,
with a young girl and you know the
consequences that happened afterwards?
I mean your behavior that night,
do you take any responsibility for that?
There's that saying nothing good
happens after after midnight, right.
I think that could probably go
a little bit earlier. So I do.
I definitely should have had more of a
sense of of where my life was going.
And. And that being out at a party
like that could could cause a number
of of unfortunate things to happen,
right? I mean, talk to me a
little bit about what happened to
your life after this young lady
filed the lawsuit and named you.
Yeah. Career completely upended fired,
I believe, two days after earning
the starting job and have have
yet to make it back on a team.
So I'm confident that it will happen.
I'm confident I will get another shot.
But definitely put a big,
a big pause on my life. But
you don't blame yourself for
any of these consequences.
There's a very big difference
between losing your job for
something you did and losing your
job for something you didn't do.
My name was attached to gang rape by
every media outlet in the country.
Even though there was never a gang rape,
there was ***** ***.
And secondly, I was never a part of that.
So that is something I am I'm
definitely taking in mind when I
think about that and and my personal
choices and what this has caused Okay.
What's going to make this
lawsuit go away do you think?
I'm not sure. I I believe they are
under the understanding that they have
opened themselves up for liability
and they're going for a Hail Mary,
a jury that believes in emotions over
facts and evidence is is how I see this.
Was there an offer of $50,000 to
settle the case? There was. Yep.
How did that? Who made that offer?
What happened? Her attorney
presented that offer to my
attorney and my attorneys knew
that I wasn't going to take it.
They're obligated to present it to
me and and I gave it a day to think
about it even though I I knew where
my my mind was at immediately and and
no I I will not pay money after the
damage has been done and I will not
pay money for a lie to be retracted.
Could you settle the lawsuit and just
walk away and resume your career?
I could, but I believe that would
be seen as an admission of guilt.
I believe that's that's someone how I see it.
And when I've heard about these stories
in the past and you hear about a a civil
lawsuit being presented to someone,
then all of a sudden it goes
away and it's robbed.
I think the obvious explanation is,
well, they settled and in my mind
that's an admission of guilt.
I'm not at all concerned that a jury
will bring a judgment against me.
Are you going to sue Dan Gillian?
Are you going to sue the accuser?
Are you going to sue San Diego State?
I will not sue San Diego State.
I will sue Dan Gillian.
My one offer will be.
I will offer to not sue her
if the lawsuit had dropped.
Now, we're both very young.
Let's move on with our lives,
right? You. You are both the very young.
What? What would you say to her
at this point? I know you had a
pretext telephone call with her.
But what would you say to her now that
all of these details have come out?
Just exactly that?
Our lives have both been chaotic
over the past nine months and
it's it's time to move on.
The the world knows the facts.
Now let's just move on.
Have you had a conversation with
your parents about, you know,
what happened at the party
that night and your judgment?
In in participating in in at
least what you say is consensual
sex with this complete stranger.
Yeah of course I've spoken
to them about it. What
did they tell you what
what's your I mean well
at first the focus was on was on life and
what was going on and what was to come
you are right it it wasn't
the best judgment but if.
If having a hookup in college
warranted you losing your job,
losing your career,
the unemployment rate would multiply by 10.
Let's be very real this happens.
It it happens at every college
campus across the entire country,
every weekend.
And just if you could reiterate.
You actually thought she was 18 and you
had no inclination that she was drunk?
Of course not.
In a million years would I
believe that a high schooler
would sneak into a college party.
That's not on anyone's mind.
And I've asked around,
I've asked around, I go to to teammates,
to to people I knew in college.
Did you ever think that anyone at
these parties was was a high schooler?
And every answer has been no.
And the fact that you may have been
drinking didn't cloud your judgment as to.
Your perception as to whether she
may have been drinking or drunk, No.
Okay. Very good. Final question.
Do you think this civil case is going
to have to end before any team considers
hiring you? I do not know.
I believe I'll be getting a shot very soon.
That's that's in my heart.
That's in my mind.
That's what I'm preparing for.
That's what I believe.
Why do you think that?
Because the evidence is there.
All the evidence is there.
All the facts are there.
We can give any team.
All the evidence to where
if they decide to sign me,
they can sit in front of a press
conference and I'll do it myself
and field questions like this
and and go through the entire
night and the facts and the
evidence and people don't just
have to believe me at my word.
35 witnesses, the 9 videos.
The night is not, he said.
She said type of thing.
This is not where we're going
to be going after each other's
character and who do we trust here?
The evidence is perfectly laid out
and I know. You probably don't
want this to all play out in court.
I mean, depositions,
taking the witness stand.
You know, it seems like there has
to be some way to settle this.
If in fact there was number
wrongdoing on your part.
I'm unwilling to settle that.
That will not happen.
And Dan, Gillian, you think
you're going to sue him? Yes.
OK, Very good. Thank you for
coming in and speaking with us.
Good luck to you.
Thank you very much.
OK. Thank you.