Maryville Alleged Rape: Mother of alleged victim in Mo. sexual assault case releases secret recordings
Updated 2 p.m. EST
(CBS) MARYVILLE, Mo. - The mother of Daisy Coleman, the 14-year-old alleged victim of a Jan. 2012 alcohol-fueled sexual assault in Maryville, Mo., has released excerpts of a secret recording she made of a May 2012 conversation she had with Nodaway County Prosecutor Robert Rice.
In the recordings, which were released to the Kansas City Star, and appear as transcripts on the newspaper's website, Melinda Coleman can reportedly be heard saying, "We were always willing to testify."
This contradicts Rice's assertion that charges were dropped in the case due to Daisy and her mother's refusal to cooperate.
CBS News' Crimesider reached out to Rice for a comment Friday in regards to recordings and he declined to comment.
During a news conference Wednesday, Rice defended his decision to drop the felony chargesthat were initially filed against two 17-year-old boys in the case. However, he said he is now asking a judge to appoint a special prosecutor to look into the case after seeing Daisy and her mother appear on CNN earlier in the week and acknowledge their willingness to testify.
"Until that time, the witnesses never told me that they were willing to cooperate and testify after they invoked their Fifth Amendment right in a deposition under oath," Rice said Wednesday.
Rice said Daisy and her mother were recorded under oath invoking their Fifth Amendment right with the knowledge that that their unwillingness to testify would force all charges in the case to be dismissed.
He said he could not release those recordings or the date of the recorded deposition, citing Missouri state law which prohibits the release of records pertaining to a closed case.
Melinda Coleman has maintained that she had willingly spoken with authorities until Rice dropped the felony charges against the boys in March 2012, two months after he had filed them. She reportedly told the Kansas City Star that she only invoked her Fifth Amendment right in a deposition regarding a remaining misdemeanor charge. She reportedly said she did so as a way of shielding her daughter from having to relive the incident with only the lesser charge pending.
Within a day, she says she changed her mind and went to Rice's office to tell him she would cooperate, reports the paper. She reportedly says the recordings were made during that conversation.
At another point in the conversation, Melinda Coleman is also reportedly heard confronting Rice about rumors she heard that someone was going to call and get "everything dropped as a favor to Barnett."
It was a report in the Kansas City Star last weekend that brought renewed attention to the case. The article questioned the prosecutor's motives in dropping the charges and suggested that the fact that one of the boys charged in the case, 17-year-old Matthew Barnett, is the grandson of a once-prominent Nodaway County politician may have played a role in the case's outcome.
Rice has disputed that claim.
In another recording released to the paper, Rice is reportedly heard telling Melinda Coleman, "We'll get this thing going again. ...We'll get another deposition set up, but it'll probably be July."
Melinda Coleman reportedly told the paper that she and her daughter participated in a July deposition with Rice. She said she did not return to sign the transcripts and soon afterward, the misdemeanor charge was dropped.
Complete coverage of the Maryville alleged rape case on Crimesider