Anonymous Takes on the Maryville Rape Case

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

[YT]vFCrZSPw7Uc#t[/YT]

Anonymous has joined the fray in the Maryville, Missouri, rape case, where 14-year-old Daisy Coleman alleged she was raped by a 17-year-old football player but charges were filed then dropped. They've launched #OpMaryville to bring attention to the case, and things look to be shaping up like the Steubenville story of last year.

In a statement, some Anonymous person wrote:

We demand an immediate investigation into the handling by local authorities of Daisy’s case. Why was a suspect, who confessed to a crime, released with no charges? How was video and medical evidence not enough to put one of these football players inside a court room?
Is this a good thing? The usual tensions of vigilante justice are at play, but I'm having hard time cheering on OpMaryville, after reporting on the Steubenville case where Anonymous descended on a small Ohio town to take on a remarkably similar rape case. In Steubenville, this resulted in massive amounts of fake information and harassing of random people. Basically Anonymous started with the idea that there was a massive conspiracy to cover up the rape (there wasn't; the students were charged before Anonymous got on the scene) then pulled together half-baked 'evidence,' anonymous slander, and hacked emails to back it up. The prosecutor ended up claiming the attention from Anonymous did more harm to her case than good.

Anonymous certainly helped bring attention to Steubenville, which may have influenced the decision to convene a new grand jury which just indicted a Steubenville high school IT guy for allegedly helping football players cover up that case. But it's hard to see how a bunch of anonymous bros swooping in from the internet and avenging random rape victims is sustainable way to fight rape culture. Maybe they'll be more careful this time, but given the early chatter, I doubt it.

Do you think Anon will help or hurt? Since this town ran that family out of their humble place I have no problem with the lot of them getting the wrath of Anonymous

 

[jonathancrane]

It is too early to assess if their presence if beneficial or detrimental, as they have not done anything yet (or so the article above indicates.)

 

[KevanG]

I'm usually not for things like this but in this case, NAIL HIM TO THE ****ING WALL ANON!

 

[BestGirl]

What happened to the original thread on this topic?

Here's an article from the Kansas City Star that will boil your blood. It's a bit long but it's also highly informative. Turns out Daisy Coleman has tried to commit suicide twice since being raped.

 

[Teelie]

Original thread got nuked for the negative turn it went in I think.

 

[KevanG]

The original thread has been annihilated by the mods due to certain people acting a certain way. Anon has done both good and bad things but they've also brought tons of attention to things like this before and forced things to be done when they wouldn't have been otherwise. They can be childish idiots but they can also be good people when they want.

 

[Hotwire]

I hope they tear this guy apart.

 

[Nathan]

If the system and parents are unable to punish the bastard, I'll settle for a bunch of unknowns on the net.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Ya I hope they follow these idiots in every city they pop up in so everyone knows what they did. It will be like they are registered sex offenders

 

[KevanG]

If you rape a 14 year old girl then no matter the age of the offender they should be registered.

 

[amazingfantasy15]

There's no punishment too small for this entire town since it's seems like the entire place is guilty, they may not have committed the actual act, but they are all part of the coverup and have continued to torture the entire family. Towns like this deserve have their actions exposed. A bunch of rednecks that treat HS Football players like royalty and let them get away with whatever they want, sickening.

 

[GENERAL RAAM582]

I :heart: Anon.

 

[KevanG]

What?

 

[Teelie]

Spartacus reference I think.

 

[knowsbleed]

What happened to the original thread on this topic?

Same thing that always happens... a differing opinion is too much for prudes to handle so things get deleted to keep the peace.

 

[runawayboulder]

I love it when Anon puts mofo's on blast.

 

[GENERAL RAAM582]

What?

Me? I put a heart icon in the middle, but it didn't work.

I Anon

 

[KevanG]

I'm on the fence about them. Like I said they've done some VERY good and positive work that is fairly amazing but they've also done some very a******ish things as well. Here's hoping they kick this guys ass and takes the whole town in it too.

 

[amazingfantasy15]

I'm on the fence about them. Like I said they've done some VERY good and positive work that is fairly amazing but they've also done some very a******ish things as well. Here's hoping they kick this guys ass and takes the whole town in it too.

It sounds like it's already happening. Everything posted on the Facebook page for the rapists college is getting replied to with references to it. As well as the mother's old job and the restaurant the rapist worked at or his family owned.

 

[KevanG]

Good. It's not just going to be something that is going to be laughed at by him later on in life. It's going to be something that ruins his reputation and everyone he will ever know will know he did this.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Just received this via email from the office of Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder:
Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder today released the following statement urging Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster and the Nodaway County Prosecuting Attorney Robert Rice revisit a controversial alleged rape case in Nodaway County.

“Since Sunday I have read with growing dismay the media accounts of the Daisy Coleman case in Nodaway County. I make no claim to knowledge of all the facts. Still, facts revealed in exhaustive media reports, including the 4,000-word piece in the Kansas City Star, raise all kinds of questions that it is now clear won’t be put to rest. These questions will fester and taint the reputation of our state for delivering impartial justice to all.

“I am disappointed that the Attorney General would wash his hands of the matter through a brief statement by a spokesman. The appalling facts in the public record shock the conscience and cry out that responsible authorities must take another look. I call on Attorney General Koster and Prosecutor Rice to join me in asking that the Circuit Court convene a grand jury to review all the evidence, hear all witnesses, and issue a decision as to whether charges should ensue.

“I hope that responsible officials will join me in this call for a grand jury to make the final call on whether criminal charges should or should not be filed.”

So it looks like the public outcry, media attention, and Anon wielding it's head has had an effect on the situation

 

[KevanG]

In other words we all know what kind of ****storm is about to happen so let's try to play nice and maybe the a****** will get off easy. Anon needs to keep on it.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Hope they do end up taking this to the grand jury and get a conviction

 

[Lily Adler]

Why did the original get deleted? Last time I read most of the comments talked about how horrible the turn of events was and hoped this punk gets his just desserts and the idiocy at the mother of the accused asking for an apology from the victims.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

I'm a little late because of the new day gig but here are some updates for ya:

The Kansas City Star reported over the weekend that prosecutors, citing a lack of evidence, had dropped charges against the player—and member of a prominent family—who allegedly raped Coleman while she was drunk. The Colemans, who had recently moved to Maryville, were reportedly threatened and felt compelled to move back to their old town. Their Maryville house burned down under mysterious circumstances in April.

Mounting pressure on the county to reconsider the case—even the state's lieutenant governor has urged a higher court to look into it—has put county prosecutor Robert Rice on the defensive. In a statement released Tuesday, Rice claimed that prosecution couldn't continue because witnesses "invoked their 5th Amendment privilege to not testify," according to the Los Angeles Times. County Sheriff Darren White backed him up, saying that "it was only when the victims refused to cooperate and assist in this case that he ultimately had to drop the case."

Not so, say victim Daisy Coleman and her mother. While White claims that Coleman pled the fifth twice before the charges were dropped, her mother says quite the opposite: that Coleman refused to sign a contract saying she planned to invoke her right against self-incrimination. “We did not refuse to testify with the felony case, we were not given any information about it, and we were not asked to testify" before the case was dropped altogether, Coleman's mother told the Times.

Already the case is reminiscent of last year's events in Steubenville, Ohio. But there's yet another similarity, one that could cause trouble: Anonymous, the loose collective of hackers, has thrown its support behind the Colemans. The group has already tweeted the number of Rice's office, planned a protest outside the courthouse and allegedly attempted to infiltrate the Sheriff Department's computer server. True to their reputation, members have also reportedly harassed county officials and friends of the accused.

But while White acknowledged that Anonymous is "a credible threat," he has just one thing to say: "They all need to get jobs and quit living with their parents."

So basically it seems like the sheriff is not being honest about why they wouldn't prosecute blaming the victims of all things

While much of the attention surrounding the Maryville rape case has focused on Daisy Coleman, the second victim, Paige Parkhurst, has come forward to offer her story.

Parkhurst was 13 in January 2012 when she and Coleman, then 14, were allegedly raped by Maryville High School football player Matthew Barnett and another 15-year-old boy. She described the rapes in great detail in an interview with Al Jazeera America:

And we got there, and they just started handing [Daisy Coleman] drink after drink after drink. And they had separated us as soon as we got there. And another boy that was there with me, had taken me into another room, and had sexually assaulted me, after me telling him no, pushing him away. And after he was done, he made me go back out into the living room with him, and we sat and waited until Matt was done with Daisy. And I had walked into Matt’s room, and she was incoherent. She couldn’t walk, couldn’t talk, and just was talking like a baby pretty much.

... I was intoxicated before we left the house. She [Daisy] was also, but they gave her even more when she got there. They drug [sic] her out of his bedroom window, drug [sic] her to the car, and then they were going to drop us off, but they were freaking out, trying to think of how they were going to drop us off without any of her brothers waking up. And they took her and carried her to the back corner of her house and left her there. And they told me to go inside, that all she needed to do was to sober up, and that she would be okay, and they were gonna be there and watch her.
Parkhurst told Al Jazeera she’s choosing to speak out now because the victims didn’t have “this kind of support” when “everything happened,” and the fact that people are now listening is “like a miracle.”

As for what she hopes to gain from speaking out, Parkhurst told Al Jezeera that she would “like justice to be done, and I would like to be able to know that there was something to be done, and that our voice didn’t go unheard.” But she also calls warns those supporting the girls, presumably Anonymous, of the problems with bullying those involved in the case:

"I do love everyone who has been supporting us, but you also have to be civil with them, and bullying them isn’t going to do anything out of this..."

That's the second victim coming out and telling all about that fateful night.

A CNN appearance by Daisy Coleman and her mother, in which they discussed the circumstances surrounding Daisy's rape and the dropping of charges against her alleged attacker, seems to have given county prosecutor Robert Rice a change of heart. He defended his former position at a press conference Wednesday night, claiming that initially Coleman had pled the 5th, stalling the investigation (a claim Coleman and her mother dispute). Until the CNN appearance, he said, "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."

Now he says the case will be reopened after the victims "apparently" want to testify which seems like a weird thing for him to just now be figuring out.

The parents of one of the accused Maryville rapists, Matthew Barnett, 19, are speaking out about the unfair pain and suffering endured by their son in light of the “one-sided” rape accusations.

Speaking to the Daily Mail on Wednesday, Shirley Barnett told a reporter that although her son is struggling, the truth will come out: “'The more you dig, you will get closer to the truth. It is not on the surface, you’re going to have to dig for it. Unfortunately we can’t help with that because that is not our personality.”

But their non-digging personality does allow them to defend their son’s innocence because, apparently, rapists can't suck at football. According to Barnett’s father, “My kid is being assassinated. The way this has all been spun, for example my son being a football star, he was not a football star, he was a back up.” Case closed.

Mrs. Barnett also thinks Melinda Coleman, Daisy Coleman’s mother, is making it seem as if the "whole thing" is "one-sided."

And when asked how their son, who is now at the University of Missouri, was coping, Mr Barnett said he was "facing some major issues."

His wife added added: 'Is Matthew OK? How can you go through this and be OK, you can’t go through this experience and be OK.

'You can’t have your picture plastered all over the world news and be portrayed as something when you know in your heart what happened and be OK. How can anybody in our family be OK over this?'

AND THIS just pisses me off, here is the rapist mom defending him saying he is being unfairly targeted. Boo freaking woo