Maryville Rape Case To Be Re-Opened

In response to mounting public pressure, county prosecutor Robert Rice has requested that a special prosecutor be appointed to re-open the rape case involving a high school football player and a 14-year-old girl that was dropped by Rice's office last year.

In a public statement, Rice said that the case needed to be reopened because one of the the accusers, Daisy Coleman, said that she would be willing to testify during an appearance on CNN. At the same time, Rice defended his decision to drop the case in the first place, hoisting the blame on Coleman. From KCTV5:

"The witnesses never told me that they were willing to cooperate and testify after they invoked their 5th Amendment right in a deposition under oath," he said. "They understood that when they at that time invoked their 5th Amendment right, that by doing so was going to force the dismissal of the case, they understood that."

Coleman and her mother have previously denied that they were unwilling to testify when the case was originally brought to Rice.

Photo via AP