Woman Indicted In Cyber-Bully Suicide

Mo. Mom Allegedly Played Role In MySpace Hoax Played On Teen Girl Who Hanged Herself

(CBS/AP)  A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted a woman for her alleged role in perpetrating a hoax on the online social network MySpace against a 13-year-old neighbor who later committed suicide.

Lori Drew of St. Louis, Mo., allegedly helped create a false-identity MySpace account to contact Megan Meier, who thought she was chatting with a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans. Josh didn't exist.

Megan hanged herself at home in October 2006 after receiving cruel messages, including one stating the world would be better off without her.

Due to juvenile privacy rules, the indictment refers to the girl as M.T.M., the U.S. attorney's office said.

In January, a Missouri state panel formed by Gov. Matt Blunt after the suicide met and said it would recommend making certain types of harassment a felony, such as if anyone 21 or older harasses people 17 and younger.

"This is an extremely rare case of an adult woman posing as a teenage boy but the cyberbullying is very real and very hurtful,'' notes CBS technology analyst Larry Magid. "About one-third of teens say they have been bullied or harassed online and though suicide is rare, there are plenty of cases where it has led to depression and extreme anxiety."

The unprecedented charges came out of Los Angeles because MySpace is headquartered there, reports CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes. According to the indictment "Lori Drew created a fictitious account and used MySpace to "harass, humiliate, and embarrass...".

While no charges were filed in Missouri, Hughes reports, a local law was passed to outlaw cyberbullying - but some St. Louis neighbors have retaliated with cyber-payback at Rottenneighbor.com - posting: " jail lori drew now" and " ...shame her out of her home..."

Salvador Hernandez, assistant agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, called the case heart-rending.

"The Internet is a world unto itself. People must know how far they can go before they must stop. They exploited a young girl's weaknesses," Hernandez said.

Drew was charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress on the girl.

"She should be punished because she knew exactly what she was doing," Megan's mother, Tina Meier, told CBS' The Early Show on Friday. "She was playing a game with my 13-year-old daughter. And there is absolutely no reason that she should be able to be walking on the street... We were served a life sentence without Megan, and she should be serving a life sentence."

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Podcast: CBS News technology analyst Larry Magid analyzes the implications of this historic indictment.

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Drew has denied creating the account or sending messages to Megan.

U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien said this was the first time the federal statute on accessing protected computers has been used in a social-networking case. It has been used in the past to address hacking.

"This was a tragedy that did not have to happen," O'Brien said.

Both the girl and MySpace are named as victims in the case, he said.

MySpace is a subsidiary of Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Fox Interactive Media Inc., which is owned by News Corp. The indictment noted that MySpace computer servers are located in Los Angeles County.

Each of the four counts carries a maximum possible penalty of five years in prison.

Drew will be arraigned in St. Louis and then moved to Los Angeles for trial.

The indictment says MySpace members agree to abide by terms of service that include, among other things, not promoting information they know to be false or misleading; soliciting personal information from anyone under age 18 and not using information gathered from the Web site to "harass, abuse or harm other people."

Drew and others who were not named conspired to violate the service terms from about September 2006 to mid-October that year, according to the indictment. It alleges they registered as a MySpace member under a phony name and used the account to obtain information on the girl.

Drew and her coconspirators "used the information obtained over the MySpace computer system to torment, harass, humiliate, and embarrass the juvenile MySpace member," the indictment charged.

After the girl killed herself, Drew and the others deleted the information for the account, the indictment said.

Last month, an employee of Drew, 19-year-old Ashley Grills, told ABC's "Good Morning America" she created the false MySpace profile but Drew wrote some of the messages to Megan.

Grills said Drew suggested talking to Megan via the Internet to find out what Megan was saying about Drew's daughter, who was a former friend.

Grills also said she wrote the message to Megan about the world being a better place without her to get Megan to end the online relationship with "Josh" because Grills felt the joke had gone too far.

"I was trying to get her angry so she would leave him alone, and I could get rid of the whole MySpace," Grills told the morning show.

Megan's death was investigated by Missouri authorities, but no state charges were filed because no laws appeared to apply to the case.

[snojen]

Let me say this, I as a parent check to see what my child does online. But for those of you who think a teenager shouldnt be on line, why not? I dont see the internet as a danger I see the adults that go online to find children to either sexual assualt or stalk. Why is it a childs place to not go on line why dont we really do right by our children. If this women had a issue with this child then why not walk next door knock and speak to her parents. Why would she go online set up an account and speak to this child as a boy? I will tell you why, she is as bad if not worse then a sexual predator. I am sure if you speak to rape victims, women, men, boys,girls at some point someone ask them what did you do. The answer was nothing, no one does anything to be hurt like that. Then now you have a child who thought she was speaking to a boy who it appears she trusted and felt they had a friendship, only to be exposed on the internet to the entire world, I think that is rape too. I am a survior of rape and I can say that what this person did to this child is not in any way would it ever be right no matter what this child might have done. And personally I would love for her to spend a few nights in jail with the inmates knowing what she did to a child. She needs a good butt kicking.

[snojen]

First let me ask what the hell is wrong with this person? I would also like to ask the police if they are going to charge this thing as I dont feel she is fit to be called human, with assited suicide, or Statutory rape, even with out sex if she was making any sexual comments to a minor then they should put her in jail for that. Even if it comes later that there is not enough for trail, trust me as a mother there are women in jail that will teach this thing a lesson. As a women and a mother this thing was either jelous or just mental either way she doesnt deserve to be free no way no how. I also think as a mother no matter where this women goes people should be aware of what is did to this child. After all the girl is just that a child.

[dallas-tx]

for all of those people blaming the mom for what happened, im guessing you dont have kids or have never been 14 yourself.

to understand a situation you need to put yourself in peoples shoes! how would you feel if you find out your kid killed herself because someone was being mean to them, and then find out it was an adult... a mom.. a friend of her family.... how would you feel???? and just imagine how much fun that woman had when she saw that megan was falling for her joke- how many laughs did they get???
why would you do that to a 13yr old... why be mean to her?? what did that woman gain????

[paintballpr0]

It is funny that everyone seems to ignore this girl broke MySpace''s TOS. She lied about her age to join, you have to be 14 to participate in MySpace.com

[tbweb]

The thing I don''t like about this case and its something everyone should be concerned with, is this new trend of someone determining you should serve jail time but not having any Law you broke to put you in jail, so they search and find something close, just good enough to lock you up! In this case claiming she used a false identity, something encouraged online these days to guard against identity theft! This is like planting drugs on a drug dealer the police can''t catch but knows sells drugs. Some people don''t have a problem with that, will argue the person sells drugs, we just can''t catch them, so we planted the drugs to get them off the street! I see a lot of room for abuse with this new trend, I see people making up all kinds of nonsense to lock people up, this has abuse written all over it!!

[stupidrules3]

pfd572,
This mom dropped the ball long before the suicide. You have to teach your kids about dealing with the criticism of others at a very young age. Kids have been vicious to each other since the dawn of time and it is my responsibility to teach my kid how to deal with it. It is also my responsibility to keep an eye on my kid and, if his behavior is erratic, step in. Megan did show the changes in behavior and mom missed the clues.

[stupidrules3]

Rudy, I''m with you on this one. I was talking about this story with my 12 year old. When I asked him what he thought about it, he said "she probably would have killed herself over something else anyway. Imagine if she had a real boyfriend and he dumped her."
If the mother can get this other woman convicted, it absolves her of the crime of not teaching her daughter to believe in herself or paying attention to her.

[ronrlogan]

..."The so-called victim''''s mother never saw what was going on because she gave her a computer and put it in her bedroom so she could be out of the way."
rudy654 at 12:21 AM : May 17, 2008

Rudy you are so full of it, you don''t know anything about this girl or her mother! Try reading this

http://stcharlesjournal.stltoday.com/articles/2007/11/10/news/sj2tn20071110-1111stc_pokin_1.ii1.txt

[ronrlogan]

..."The so-called victim''''s mother never saw what was going on because she gave her a computer and put it in her bedroom so she could be out of the way."
rudy654 at 12:21 AM : May 17, 2008

Rudy you are so full of it, you don''t know anything about this girl or her mother! Try reading this

http://stcharlesjournal.stltoday.com/articles/2007/11/10/news/sj2tn20071110-1111stc_pokin_1.ii1.txt

[pfd572]

Oh, rudy, rudy, dury. You are still beating the dead horse that the mom was unfit. What makes you believe that? Nothing that has been reported points to her being unfit. All we know is she was doing mom things with her other kids at the time her daughter was at risk. Her daughter was a teenager, with many teen angst issues. How many mom''s do you know are attached to their kids hips? How many teens do what their parents tell them without arguments or several tries? You are so judgmental, you must be one of the perfect people. Give it a rest, you know nothing about this family.

[rudy654-2009]

They obviously found enough to indict the beast. Now we''''re getting somewhere.
Posted by MyOpinion1 at 08:14 PM

Bullkrap. They are nothing but trumped up charges. I wonder who is going to charge the mother for child neglect? She certainly wasn''t doing her part now was she?

[rudy654-2009]

The actual reality is that sticks and stones cause temporary injury. So the saying is really, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but WORDS DO PERMANENT DAMAGE". Posted by smitty448 at 06:02 PM

The tongue is a dangerous thing. But the problem is, all of you are guilty of the same thing at one time or another in life. No exceptions.

[rudy654-2009]

How come the victim''''s Mom could not see what was going on? It is tragic when anyone takes their own life. But it is totally ridiculous to send someone to jail for being mean and spiteful. Geez...this country is in big trouble.
Posted by horse3farm at 02:13 PM

The so-called victim''s mother never saw what was going on because she gave her a computer and put it in her bedroom so she could be out of the way. It was their babysitter and pacifier. The mother was every bit as responsible and it kills her to the point that she has to find a way to rid herself of the guilt for not being there and invovled with her child.

[rudy654-2009]

Sigh... now tell us when the BOOK and movie deals come out ok?




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Posted by newster1 at 09:25 PM

Amen.

[notbuynit]

She has to be an idiot to think they cant trace this to her computer. Stoopid ***.

[notbuynit]

This woman is on par with pedophiles, a predator. Inexcusable. She deserves severe punishment.

[nothappyatall]

Meirers now have a "MySpace" memorial page for
Posted by ronrlogan"

Sigh... now tell us when the BOOK and movie deals come out ok?

[simplemind2]

A girl suing a man she claimed they met on one of the Internet''s chat-room.
She claimed that his MySpace profile listed him as "Stanford University" graduate and making 6 figure yearly salary.
The reason she brought him to people''s court was she alleged that he borrowed money from her and refused to pay her back.
Of course, he claimed she gave him those money as "Gifts".
She stated originally she thought he''s such a good catch - Stanford Grad and 6 figure yearly salary - which girl wouldn''t.
She also stated that she''s getting suspicious after they went out a couple of times and turned out it''s always that she has to pay for all their expenses.
Only after the court Judge queried him and found out not only he''s not a college Grad - he''s unemployed.
Folks - watch out.
I took a look at him and my response was "He doesn''t look like a college Grad to me at all"!
There are a lot of liars using the Internet to trick the innocent.
Too good to be true - generally is.

[Netterz]

In my opinion, the proper charge this woman should face is child abuse because she is an Internet predator. She did the same thing that a pedophile would do, and should be treated as such. She created a fake Identity of a child, portrayed a child, lured her into an ongoing relationship, pursued her, intentionally brought her emotionally UP, to gain her trust, so ultimately, she could hurt her. Shes a very sick woman, who should be locked up, and at the very least, her own children removed from her custody. She as an adult, and a mother herself, should be PROTECTING kids around her from Internet predators, not becoming one. She knew the girl well, knew her family, she knew she had emotional issues. Adults are NOT ALLOWED to abuse children, IN ANY MANNER. THIS WOMAN ABUSED A CHILD. She stalked, and preyed upon her, along with a few other adults, they set out to HURT this girl, with malice and intent. As a parent, it is her responsibility to try to resolve the problems between her own daughter and the other girl, not instigate more. Investing and breeding high school drama as a grown woman proves shes a sick and evil predator, along with the adults that got into this crime with her, who should not be allowed contact with children. As for some of the comments I have seen, its even more unfortunate that being an idiot isnt a crime.

[mrs_002]

other peoples comments are often the reason people commit suiside/depression, it is a mean world out there. while i do think that is was immature for an adult woman to do such a thing i don''t however see how someone can sue someone else for this. if work makes me want to kill myself should my family sue the business...that is ludicrous the courts would get nothing done but hearing about who caused who to kill themself.