Attorneys for Arizona QB Jayden de Laura deny guilty plea, sex-assault conviction claim

Attorneys for Jayden de Laura said the Arizona quarterback never pleaded guilty nor was convicted of sexual assault in a 2018 case resolved in juvenile court in Hawaii.

They also said de Laura made no admission of guilt in recently settling a related civil suit.

In the civil suit, de Laura and a high school teammate were accused of sexually assaulting a teen-aged girl after a championship football game in Hawaii. The suit states that de Laura “eventually” pleaded guilty in juvenile court to second-degree sexual assault.

A statement from attorneys Philip Miyoshi and Thomas Otake that the Arizona Daily Star obtained late Thursday rebuts the claims made in the civil suit. Otake was one of de Laura’s attorneys in the juvenile court case.

“Reports from certain media outlets involving Jayden de Laura are inaccurate and have inflicted unnecessary duress and reputational harm to numerous individuals and entities,” the statement reads.

“The allegations against Jayden stemmed from when he was a junior in high school, a minor, and were handled in the Family Court. Under Hawaii law, the records and files in juvenile cases are sealed, and all parties are prohibited by law from releasing them.

“While we are unable to release details of the case, it is important to correct misinformation that has been reported. What we can share is that reports that Jayden pled guilty and was convicted of sexual assault are not accurate.

“Further, when the civil lawsuit was brought well after the juvenile matter in Family Court concluded, Jayden chose to resolve it quickly, with no admissions of guilt, so he could focus on his academic and athletic career, and all parties could move forward with their lives without the stressors of a lengthy litigation process.”

Asked for a response to the statement, Ryan Kaufman, an attorney for the plaintiff, said in an email: “We are unable to comment on this matter.”

Details of the civil suit were first publicly reported May 3. Two days later, University of Arizona officials said they had known since fall 2022 that de Laura was named in a 2018 sexual-assault case and determined he would remain with the team.

“In the fall of 2022 after a civil complaint was filed against football student-athlete Jayden de Laura, the University of Arizona first became aware of a 2018 incident involving de Laura which occurred while he was in high school in Hawaii,” the UA statement read. “After reviewing the matter, the determination was made to allow de Laura to continue as a student-athlete and his status remains unchanged.”

An attorney for de Laura did not return the Star’s phone calls last week seeking comment, and the statement issued a week later was the first made publicly about the case on the quarterback’s behalf.

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The civil complaint was filed on Dec. 2, 2021, about a month before de Laura transferred from Washington State University to Arizona.

After being named the Pac-12 Conference Offensive Freshman of the Year in 2021, de Laura entered the NCAA transfer portal on Jan. 7, 2022. Three days later, he verbally committed to Arizona and enrolled soon after.

Court records filed last week say de Laura and ex-teammate Kamo’i Latu reached a settlement with a woman who told police in December 2018 that the two raped her after a high school football game in Honolulu on Oct. 27, 2018, when she was about 17 years old. She was named in the court documents. However, the Star does not generally name alleged victims of sexual assault.

According to the lawsuit, de Laura summoned the girl to the stairwell of a parking structure, where the boys demanded she “engage in sex with the two of them simultaneously, immediately.” When she refused, the lawsuit states, de Laura and Latu “physically overpowered” her and forced sex acts on her.

According to the lawsuit, de Laura and Latu were charged with second-degree sexual assault and later pleaded guilty. Documentation of those charges is unavailable because all parties were minors and the case ran through juvenile court, where the records are closed to the public.

Neither de Laura nor Latu received jail time, the lawsuit says, adding that they were ordered to write apology letters to the plaintiff.

Although the criminal case was handled through the juvenile court system, the civil lawsuit was filed against the families of de Laura and Latu, along with St. Louis School, for “assault, false imprisonment and negligence.”

All parties involved engaged in a mediations process in December 2022, and settlements by de Laura and Latu’s families were reached for undisclosed amounts, according to the most recent court documents filed last week. The case was filed in Hawaii Circuit Court, which handles civil cases seeking more than $40,000.

Latu’s attorney, Michael Green, told The Athletic last week that the settlement in the civil lawsuit was not an admission of guilt by his client.

After his first season in Pullman, de Laura was arrested on suspicion of DUI in February 2021. WSU suspended him. He was found not guilty the following summer.

De Laura passed for 3,685 yards, third most in UA history, and 25 touchdowns in his first season at Arizona, leading the Wildcats to a 5-7 record, a four-win improvement over the previous season.

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