SAN DIEGO — The fallout continues after Thursday's civil lawsuit accusing three San Diego State University football players of rape.
The defendants named in the lawsuit include former Aztecs punter, Matt Araiza, who was drafted by the Buffalo Bills; Zavier Leonard, who is a current member of the Aztecs team; and Nowlin “Pa’a” Ewaliko, who is a former member of the San Diego State team.
Gretchen von Helms is a local attorney and Harvard law school graduate with 20 years of experience and has even received designation from the State Bar of California as a specialist in criminal law.
That's why we got her perspective on the allegations in this case.
Is it typical or unusual for a criminal case of this caliber to take this long to investigate?
Von Helms: "That is a very unusual delay for a case that's alleged by Jane Doe to be this egregious. They usually do not take this long to investigate."
Why do you think the investigation is taking so long? Could it have anything to do with SDSU's winning football season at the time?
Von Helms: “It could be because they had a winning football team. I hope not. I hope that's not the reason for the delay. My perspective of what the delay was is that the cops were being very thorough. They didn't rush to judgement. Maybe they were taking their time on it because there's a lot of digital information and maybe they were taking their time on it because the football players, they didn't want to jeopardize their opportunities."
Since the lawsuit accusing three San Diego State Football players of rape came out Thursday, the attorney representing Matt Araiza, Kerry Armstrong, appeared in an exclusive live interview with CBS 8 and the attorney representing Jane Doe, Dan Gilleon, has published several tweets including the alleged victims journal entries.
Is posting what could be evidence online on social media a legal strategy?
Von Helms: "As a criminal defense attorney, I feel less comfortable with digital. Maybe as a civil attorney because he has a burden of proof he's trying to bring out all the stuff that he wants brought out now because it's the court of public opinion."
Why was the civil lawsuit was filed before there were any criminal charges?
Von Helms: "They could have started the civil case to try to hurry the prosecution along because of all the publicity."
What is the process for filing criminal charges?
Von Helms: "The DA reviews all of it and makes a determination of whether or not they can meet the standard of proof. So they need probably cause to issue charges but what they want is proof beyond a reasonable doubt to get a conviction."
Criminal charges still haven’t been filed. Will there be criminal charges?
Von Helms: "In my opinion, there will be a criminal case."
Why would Kerry Armstrong, Matt Araiza’s attorney say they need a criminal defense attorney? Why do they need so many attorneys?
Von Helms: “Whether the criminal case is as egregious as the rape allegations or if its statutory rape because of the victim's age, there should still be a civil and criminal case which is why more than one attorney could represent the defendants. She has the DA's office as her criminal prosecuting lawyers and she has a civil lawyer to prosecute her civil case so if you look at it like that, she basically has two lawyers as well."
Von Helms says civil cases usually take longer than criminal cases to make it through the legal system and reminds viewers no matter what, the defendants are innocent until proven guilty.
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