A Platte City teenager remains in custody at the Platte County Detention Center, charged with a raping a 14-year-old girl and later sending her messages related to the crime.
According to a probable cause statement, the victim accuses Dakota Cochran, 17, of having sexual intercourse with her against her will inside his car in a secluded location. He claims the sex was consensual and later attempted to explain away a sexual “hit list” located on his phone following his arrest.
Dakota Cochran
Cochran remains in jail in lieu of a $50,000 cash-only bond.
According to court documents, authorities responded to the Children’s Mercy Hospital on Tuesday, March 22 to reports of a 14-year-old who said she had been raped. An examination revealed “significant evidence of penetrating trauma” to the alleged victim, who claimed the incident happened three days earlier.
According to her statement, Cochran picked her up from a friend’s house and drove her to a secluded place, believed to be a conservation area near the Platte River. Once there, Cochran parked the car and asked her to “make out.”
Despite saying no, Cochran allegedly forced himself on top of her, and the victim claims to have blacked out, waking up some time later in the back seat with no pants nor underwear on. Cochran was having sex with her, and he ignored her protests to stop, according to her statement.
In a followup interview, the victim claimed to have no recollection of how she ended up in the backseat, saying fear might have caused her to black out.
After finishing the act, Cochran drove the victim back to her friend’s house. Upon discussing the incident, the friend claimed a similar experience with Cochran occurred earlier in the month.
According to the friend, the victim also told her that she did not want to have sex with Cochran after the incident. Further evidence was found in the form of SnapChat messages between the victim and Cochran, which show Cochran accusing her of causing drama while she tells him that he should have stopped when she said no.
One SnapChat message allegedly shows Cochran’s boxer shorts he was wearing that have blood on them. The victim believes the blood is hers.
Prior to being taken into custody last week, Cochran was allowed to speak with his mother, and he told her he did have sex with the victim in his car but that it wasn’t rape. He was wearing a cast on his hand at the time, and when asked about it, he told the arresting officer, “I have an anger problem, and I hit a cement wall too hard,” before laughing.
Cochran, a student at Platte County High School, spoke with authorities and revealed details of what he called a consensual sexual encounter. According to court documents, he also asked officers, “If I raped her, why did she wait two days to report it?”
When asked about the pictures of his bloody boxers, Cochran said he thought it was funny because the victim had been a virgin. A search of his phone turned up the sexual hit list which included names of females and sexual acts he had allegedly done with them. He told officers when questioned about it, that all of his friends have one so he had to have one, too.
Cochran was charged last week with a felony count of second degree rape and a misdemeanor for child molestation.