Ex-Springfield youth group leader fighting rape conviction after victim recants her story

A Republic man is fighting his 2017 rape conviction after the teen victim said she lied about being raped because she did not want to get in trouble with her mother, court documents say.

The girl allegedly reversed the claims she made in 2015, saying they had consensual sex and Daniel Pearre did not know she was 15 years old.

Pearre, 28, spent more than 100 days in a sex offender's unit in the Missouri Department of Corrections before being released on probation last year, court records show.

According to court documents, Pearre was a 25-year-old youth group leader at a Springfield church when he was accused of forcibly raping a 15-year-old girl.

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Pearre faced life in prison for first-degree rape. He opted for a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to second-degree rape in 2017, according to court documents.

Records show he was sentenced to seven years in prison, but that sentence was suspended and he was sentenced to 120 days in a sex offender's unit.

Less than two weeks into his incarceration, Pearre's victim told a prosecuting attorney she felt terrible because she felt as though she had ruined Pearre's life, according to court documents.

The girl allegedly said she and Pearre had spoken on the phone beforehand and planned to meet up and have sex.

The same day the girl recanted her allegations to the prosecutor in 2017, the prosecutor alerted Pearre's attorney, documents show.

Pearre's attorney filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea, citing additional statements made by the girl.

According to the motion, she said that Pearre did not know she was below the legal age to consent to sex. The motion said the girl feared "retribution" from her mother if she knew the truth.

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The girl's original allegations are described in a probable cause statement filed by Republic police.

The statement said an officer went to Republic High School around dinnertime on Aug. 16, 2015, to check on a sedan parked in a nearby field.

The officer pulled into a driveway leading to the field, parked her car, and saw two people lying on the ground near the sedan.

As the officer approached, the statement said a man — later identified as Pearre — picked up a sheet, wadded it into a ball and put in the car.

Pearre was arrested, the statement said, and the girl was questioned.

According to the statement, the girl told police she told Pearre she did not want to have sex with him, but then "it just happened."

She said he pulled her hair so violently it caused her hair fall out, the statement said, and during sex Pearre forcefully grabbed her torso.

Pearre did not use a condom and ejaculated inside of her, she said.

At the request of her mother, the girl was taken to Mercy Hospital in Springfield, where she had a rape kit exam.

The next day, the girl was interviewed at the Child Advocacy Center. According to the statement, the girl said she went on a dating site she used to use and saw she had a message from Pearre.

"The message was from Daniel, the guy who I was raped by last night," she allegedly said.

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The girl said she told Pearre she did not want him touching her, but he took her shorts and underwear off, then forcefully raped her. 

The officer who wrote the probable cause statement said Pearre was a danger to the community in part because he was a youth group leader at First Evangelical Free Church in Springfield.

The motion to set aside the judgment against Pearre was originally filed in August 2017, but a judge has not ruled on it. A hearing on the motion scheduled for Nov. 26.

Stephanie Wan, the prosecuting attorney handling the case, said false allegations of sexual assault are rare.

"The rate of false allegations of sex assault is no higher than the false allegations reported for other crimes," Wan said, yet victims of sexual assault undergo much more scrutiny than other crime victims.

It's estimated that about 63 percent of sexual assaults never get reported to authorities at all, Wan said.

"It's really traumatic to come forward about sexual assault cases," Wan said.

Aside from false allegations, there can be a number of reasons sexual assault victims recant their allegations, including public backlash, guilt, trauma and more, Wan said.

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