Teenage Girl at the Center of the Maryville, Mo. Rape Case Daisy Coleman Hospitalized after Suicide Attempt … Cyber-Bullied to Commit Suicide (Update: No Rape Charges for Matt Barnett)

More cyber-bullying leads to attempted suicide of Maryville rape victim …

Daisy Coleman, the female teen at the center of the Maryville, MO rape case has been hospitalized after an overdose suicide attempt.  The Missouri teenager alleged in 2012 that she and another friend were sexual assaulted at a house party when they were ages 14 and 13. The firestorm and cyber-bullying that ensued was enormous. The case gained national attention and the “hacktivist”  group Anonymous came to her aid and mounted a call for action in the case as it appeared it was being glossed over.  The 16 year old girl is now at the Kansas City children’s psychiatric hospital after ingesting an unidentified amount of pills Sunday evening.  The news of Daisy’s attempted suicide was released by her mother, Melinda Coleman, in a Facebook post.

A Maryville Mo., teenager, who has been at the center of a rape case which made national headlines, was in a Kansas City hospital on Monday night after attempting to take her own life.

Daisy Coleman is the teen who claimed to have been raped by two high school students when she was 14 years old. Her family has accused prosecutors of dismissing her claims.

The rape accusations made by Daisy and her family subjected them to harassment from several Maryville community members, including both parents and students. The case eventually caught national attention.

The mother of Daisy Coleman calls on Anonymous not to abandon her daughter.

Melinda Coleman also begged cyber ‘hacktivist’ organization Anonymous, which showed support for her daughter late last year when the story was in the headlines, not to abandon the case after she said they failed to follow up on any of her leads.

‘Where is anonymous now?’ Dr Coleman wrote on Facebook Monday. ‘My daughter has been terrorized to the point she tried to kill herself last night. She may never be ok. Where are you and your super hacking skills and internet help now…….we really need them.’

CASE BACKGROUND:

The Raw Story:

Coleman was 14 in January of 2012, when the 17-year-old son of Republican state representative plied her and a 13-year-old friend with alcohol and then had sex with the semi-conscious girls. The assailant, Matthew Barnett, recorded the alleged assault on his phone, then left Coleman unconscious on her family’s frozen front lawn in Maryville, Missouri.

Barnett was arrested and charged in the case and confessed to police that he and his high school football teammates had sexual relations with the girls. He maintained that the girls were intoxicated, but awake, and that the sex and taping were consensual. Weeks after his arrest, all charges against Barnett were dismissed.

The Kansas City Star: Daisy Coleman, teen at center of Maryville sexual assault case, is recovering after suicide attempt.

The case centered on a January 2012 house party in which Daisy Coleman and a friend — ages 14 and 13 at the time — alleged they were sexually assaulted at the home of Matthew Barnett, then a 17-year-old Maryville High senior and the grandson of a former state representative.

Barnett was arrested on charges of sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child, the latter for allegedly leaving Coleman incapacitated by alcohol and barefoot in her yard in 30-degree temperatures.

Also, 17-year-old Jordan Zech was charged with sexual exploitation of a minor, which involved using a friend’s cellphone to film a portion of the encounter between Coleman and Barnett. (The case of a 15-year-old boy, who admitted having intercourse with the younger girl despite her repeated refusals, was handled in juvenile court.)

Two months later, however, Nodaway County prosecutor Robert Rice dropped the felony charges against the two older youths, citing a lack of evidence and, later, a lack of cooperation on the part of the alleged victims’ families.

Currently the alleged rape case is being reviewed by a special prosecutor after initial charges against boys were dropped.

A special prosecutor appointed in a controversial case of an alleged rape in Maryville, Missouri, promised on Monday to review the case “without fear and without favor.”

“I know that this case has raised a variety of concerns in northwest Missouri, so please know this: This case will be thoroughly reviewed,” Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said.

“I can also assure you that politics, connections or any other reason you can think of will not play a role in our review of this case. It will be the evidence, as it is in every case that we review,” she said.

A judge appointed Baker as special prosecutor days after a different prosecutor, who dropped charges, said he’d request the move.

UPDATE I: Dead rabbits have been dumped in Paige Parkhurst’s family car as fellow Maryville rape victim Daisy Coleman attempts suicide

UPDATE II: No Rape Charges for Suspect in Daisy Coleman Rape case … pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor child endangerment. (bumped from 1/8/14 – 5:48 am)

A Missouri man accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old schoolmate when he was 17 was charged Thursday with a misdemeanor child endangerment charge.

The charge against 19-year-old Matt Barnett was filed in Nodaway County Court in Maryville. He is scheduled to be arraigned later Thursday. His lawyer, J.R. Hobbs, didn’t immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment.

Matthew Barnett pleads guilty to misdemeanor 2 years after teen claimed she was raped.

Two years probation and no jail time?

A Missouri man pleaded guilty Thursday to a second-degree misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of a child in connection with a highly publicized sex assault case involving a teenage girl, a prosecutor said.

Matthew Barnett, 19, was sentenced to two years’ probation.

Prosecutors said Barnett, then 17, gave alcohol to his victim, Daisy Coleman, until she was impaired, and left her outside her home in temperatures below freezing during the early morning hours of January 8, 2012.