A prosecutor in Missouri has asked a state judge to appoint a new prosecutor after facing national backlash for his handling of the Daisy Coleman rape case, the Huffington Post reported.
Earlier this week, the alleged rape and sexual assault of Coleman was thrust into the spotlight after her mother, Melinda, claimed the charges were dropped due to the political connections of her daughter's attacker in the town of Maryville, Missouri.
On Wednesday, Nodaway County prosecutor Robert Rice asked the judge to choose another prosecutor to determine if new charges should be filed.
Charges were initially dropped in March 2012 -- two months after Coleman claims her daughter was dumped on their front lawn in freezing winter temperatures after being raped and assaulted by a 17-year-old football player.
Rice claimed the Coleman family was uncooperative during the investigation, leading to their dissatisfaction of the case's end result. The Colemans claim otherwise and say the prosecution didn't do enough to push the case forward on purpose.
In addition to Daisy's attack -- which she claims was videotaped by another boy -- her 13-year-old friend was also allegedly raped by a third 15-year-old boy. All of the boys claim the sex was consensual.
The 15-year-old boy was charged in the juvenile system and the 17-year-old who filmed Daisy's assault had charges against him dropped.
"I think just having it looked at fairly and having other people know how much we were bullied goes a long way. Even if that's all that ever comes out of it," Daisy's mother said. "That may be enough to move on and have some peace and some security."
Daisy eventually became the target of vicious attacks on social media sites, leading her mother to pull Daisy and her siblings out of the local school system, moving them east to Albany.
"She shouldn't have snuck out of the house. She shouldn't have drank. But I think a lot of 14-year-olds do that, and I'm sick of people saying she deserves this," Coleman added.
Daisy's case received support from all other the country., encouraging a petition on Change.org and a threat to the Missouri legal system from Anonymous, who compared the issue to the Steubenville rape case.
