By Jeff Lehr
jlehr@joplinglobe.com
A Jasper County judge was forced for the second time to declare a mistrial Tuesday in the statutory-rape case of former girls basketball coach Joshua J. Long.
Circuit Judge David Dally declared the mistrial when attorneys in the 31-year-old defendant’s case were unable to come up with a sufficient number of qualified jurors among a pool of 48 Jasper County residents who answered summonses to appear in Jasper County Circuit Court in Joplin for possible jury duty.
During jury selection for the trial, too many among the jury pool indicated a familiarity with the case.
Long, a former teacher and coach at Carl Junction and McDonald County high schools, is charged with three counts of second-degree statutory rape in connection with his alleged involvement with a 16-year-old girl from Webb City.
It was the second time the judge has declared a mistrial in the case. A trial was scuttled Aug. 13 when similar problems arose with selecting a jury.
Dally consequently ordered a change of venue. The judge asked defense attorneys and the prosecutor to get together in an effort to agree on another Missouri county from which to select a jury. The judge said that if the two sides cannot reach an agreement, he will choose a county for the change of venue.
Long, of Oronogo, had been hired to be the girls basketball coach at East Newton High School near Granby when the allegations arose in the summer of 2008, and he was forced to resign.
The girl testified at Long’s preliminary hearing in October of last year that her sexual relationship with the defendant began toward the end of the 2007-08 school year and included nearly daily texting of messages to each other via cell phones. She said Long sent her by cell phone a picture of himself shirtless, and she sent him two nude pictures of herself.
The girl testified that she had been to the defendant’s house once while his wife and stepson were present, and that she went to his home again on June 12, 2008, specifically to have sex with him for the first time. The girl told the court that they kissed, disrobed and had sexual intercourse on a kitchen island of Long’s home.
Long is facing three counts of statutory rape because the sex with the girl allegedly was repeated on two other occasions that summer.
Court records indicate that a taped interview of the defendant, three taped interviews of the alleged victim and other documents have been the subject of motions to suppress filed by Long’s attorney, Dee Wampler, of Springfield.
A new date for the trial will not be set until a county is chosen for the change of venue.
Rumor first
Joshua Long’s accuser told the court last year that her sexual relationship with the former girls basketball coach was “a rumor before (it) ever happened.” When word got around and she was confronted as to the truth of the rumor by school officials and a sheriff’s investigator, she initially denied the relationship, the girl said.
Only later did she tell the truth in an interview at the Children’s Center in Joplin, according to the girl.
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