MARYVILLE, Mo. — A small Missouri town is getting a lot of national attention this week and even threats from a group of vigilante Internet hackers. It’s all because of rape allegations. High school football stars were charged with the crime, but the charges ended up getting dropped.
The Coleman family moved to Maryville several years ago for a fresh start after the death of the children’s father. In January 2012, then 14-year-old Daisy, who was a freshman, was texting with a popular senior football player. Daisy and a 13-year-old friend sneaked out at 1 a.m. to meet up with the senior and his friends. Daisy later told investigators the last thing she remembered was being handed a big drink.
The next morning, Daisy’s mother Melinda found her daughter outside, barely conscious in below-freezing temperatures. One teen was charged with sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child for leaving daisy out in the cold. Another teen was charged with sexual exploitation of a minor because he recorded the sexual encounter on his cell phone. But a few months later the rape and exploitation charges were dropped.
In a statement, the Nodaway County Prosecutor Robert Rice said there was insufficient evidence to proceed. He added that “the State’s witnesses refused to cooperate and invoked their 5th Amendment privilege to not testify.”
The Nodaway County Sheriff Darren White says he had a solid case but the victims refused to cooperate.
“They chose not to seek justice,” White said. “It’s more spectacular to stir controversy and try this case in the court of public opinion, and that’s what they have chosen to do.”
In a CNN interview, Melinda and Daisy Coleman said that’s not true, they were willing to testify.
“What is it going to take for them to do something here,” said Melinda in the CNN interview. “Is one of these girls going to have to die?”
Daisy says kids harassed her at school and online. Melinda says the controversy cost her her job and drove the family out of town. And while they were trying to sell their home, it mysteriously caught fire.
Now that the national media has picked up on the story, the Internet hackers group “Anonymous” is threatening to come after the town of Maryville and the city manager says his town is bracing for it.
“With all the national and international attention, our community has taken appropriate safety measures and makes sure our citizens are protected,” said Greg McDanel. “We continue to put safety first.”
McDanel adds that the city had nothing to do with the investigation and has no control over the case.
“I believe the general public is still looking for some sort of action and that action will have to be taken up through the Nodaway County Prosecutor,” he said.
Sheriff White considers the “Anonymous” threats credible, given the groups history, but says it’s unfortunate it’s come to this.
“People can thrown spears at me, but I don’t think it’s fair at all to cast this shadow on the entire community, when the majority of the people in this community are not aware of this case,” White said.
“Anonymous” is calling for Attorney General Chris Koster to look into the case and investigate why the charges were dropped. The boy initially charged with rape is related to a prominent Missouri politician and some media reports have insinuated that there were “political favors” called in to dismiss the charges. Prosecutor Rice didn’t directly address that criticism but said in his statement that these “personal attacks made against me are malicious, wrong, and never happened.”
The Attorney General’s office says it does not have the authority to review or overrule a prosecutor’s charging decisions in criminal cases.
The story has been the talk of social media and now there’s a Facebook group organizing a peaceful protest in Maryville on October 22.