By Kevin Murphy
MARYVILLE, Mo., Oct 22 (Reuters) – Several hundred people,
many holding daisies, gathered in Maryville, Missouri, on
Tuesday for a rally organized by computer hacking group
Anonymous to support teenager Daisy Coleman, who was allegedly
raped by a high school football player at a party in 2012.
The crowd gathered near the town square where the computer
hacker group, along with Justice for Daisy, a Facebook group,
called for justice on behalf of Coleman and other rape victims.
“The shear outrageousness of the Daisy Coleman case is what
brought us here today,” said Courtney Cole, one of the rally
organizers, as cold winds whipped around the cheering crowd.
“She is not alone. Every year, thousands of Missourians are
raped and sexually assaulted. It is past time for us as a state
to change. No more.”
A former high school football player is accused of sexually
assaulting Coleman, who was 14 at the time, at a party in
January 2012. A second teenager is accused of recording the
incident on a cellphone.
Nodaway County Prosecutor Bob Rice had filed felony charges
against the two boys, who were both 17 at the time, but later
dropped them, citing a lack of cooperation from the girl, her
mother and other witnesses.
Daisy and her mother, Melinda Coleman, have denied being
uncooperative with prosecutors and in several interviews have
pressed for the case to be reopened.
The case has attracted national attention after a
months-long investigation was published on Oct. 13 in the Kansas
City Star.
Anonymous highlighted the case after the newspaper expose,
embracing Coleman’s cause to put pressure on authorities to
bring charges. The group mounted a similar campaign in a rape
case that focused attention on the town of Steubenville, Ohio.
Although the rally was launched by Anonymous, the crowd
included only a few members wearing masks marking their
affiliation with the group. None of them spoke publicly.
“There are so many cases like this that get pushed aside and
are not talked about very much,” said Jenna Little, 18, who
attended the rally. “Maybe if one person opens up, others will
get the strength to do it.”
Police set up a podium on one corner of the square for
counterprotesters, no one showed up.
Pete Hayes, a Maryville resident, said the media has told
only Daisy’s side of the story.
“It’s been blown hugely out of proportion” Hayes
said. “Everybody is saying ‘Maryville must be a vile place.'”
A new prosecutor, Jean Peters Baker, was appointed by a
judge on Monday to re-examine the case. Baker is the Kansas
City-based prosecutor for Jackson County, which is about 90
miles south of Maryville.
(Reporting by Kevin Murphy; Editing by Brendan O’Brien)
