Report: Attorneys for Arizona QB Jayden de Laura refute civil sexual assault claims

More than a week after accusations of sexual assault against their client were widely reported, attorneys for Jayden de Laura have spoken out to refute those claims.

“Reports that Jayden pled guilty and was convicted of sexual assault are not accurate,” attorneys Philip Miyoshi and Thomas Otake told the Arizona Daily Star in a statement.

De Laura, Arizona’s starting quarterback, was accused in a civil complaint filed in Honolulu in December 2021 of sexual assault against a female acquaintance in 2018, when he was a junior at St. Louis School in Hawaii. The complaint claimed he and teammate Kamo’i Latu, a safety at Wisconsin, assaulted a fellow minor in a parking garage at the school after a playoff game.

The complaint said de Laura and Latu both were charged with second degree sexual assault, a Class B felony in Hawaii punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and that both players pled guilty but that no jail sentence was imposed. No documentation was included in the complaint to substantiate those claims, however.

The statement given to the Star said the allegations made against de Laura in 2018 “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.”

Court documents from last week indicate de Laura and Latu entered into mediation with the plaintiff last fall, coming to a settlement agreement in December.

“When the civil lawsuit was brought well after the juvenile matter in Family Court concluded, Jayden chose to resolve it quickly, with no admission 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.”

Arizona released a statement last week saying it became aware of civil complaint last fall, several months after de Laura transferred to the UA from Washington State, and it determined at the time that he would remain with the program. The statement said his “status remained unchanged.”