Call For Justice – Controversial Maryville Rape Case Reopened [Today Show – October 17 2013]

A district attorney in the small town Maryville, Mo., is calling for a special prosecutor to reopen a controversial rape case involving a 14-year-old-girl and a popular football player. The girl, Daisy Coleman, and her mother, Melinda Coleman say they have been the target of harassment and a house they owned burned down, while the football player’s mom says she is concerned for his safety. NBC’s Kate Snow reports.

In January 2012, 17-year-old Matthew Barnett (the grandson of Republican representative Rex Barnett) allegedly raped Coleman, as another unnamed boy, a friend of Barnett’s, did the same to Coleman’s friend. Barnett’s friend Jordan Zech taped the events. Daisy Coleman was dumped on her family’s front porch in sub-freezing temperatures, barely conscious. Two months later the case was dropped; prosecutor Robert Rice said the rape kits, interviews and Zech’s admission that he deleted the video from that night were not enough to convict Barnett of sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child. Nor was it enough to convict Zech of sexual exploitation of a child.

source