Judge denies request for special prosecutor in rape case
A judge denied a request for a special prosecutor in a Columbia rape case.
A grand jury indicted Jackie Jennings in Oct. 2017 on charges of forcible rape and burglary in a 2002 case.
On Wednesday, Jennings filed a motion for a special prosecutor. According to the motion, the victim made a statement in 2002 to a Columbia police officer who now works for the Boone County Prosecutor’s Office as an investigator.
Jennings argued the former officer may fear that the future of his career is in jeopardy if he were to testify in a way that negatively impacts the prosecution’s case. The motion also states the former officer, as an employee of the prosector’s office, may have access to confidential information and trial strategy.
The prosecutor’s office did not respond to a late afternoon request for comment on Monday.
According to the 2017 indictment, Jennings knowingly had sexual intercourse with a victim by the use of forcible compulsion. The indictment also states that Jennings unlawfully entered a building for the purpose of raping the victim.
Police eventually suspected Jennings after his DNA sample matched the one investigators put together in 2002 and entered into an FBI database.
According to police’s probable cause statement, the victim was leaving a downtown bar when she was approached by an unknown man who offered to give her a ride.
Police said the victim declined and got in her car and drove back to her residence.
Officers said the victim began to feel ill and thought it was odd because she did not drink a lot of alcohol earlier that night.
The victim told police she laid down and when she woke up, there was a man standing in her room, police said. The victim said she passed out when the man began trying to force her pants off.
