Mom In MySpace Hoax May Land In Prison

(AP)  A defense attorney says prosecutors are the real bullies for seeking a stiff sentence against a Missouri mother once accused of scheming over the Internet to humiliate 13-year-old neighbor Megan Meier who later committed suicide.

Lawyer Dean Steward represents Lori Drew, who is scheduled to be sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court after being convicted in November of three misdemeanor counts of accessing computers without authorization.

Drew was found not guilty of the felony charge of intentionally causing emotional harm while accessing computers without authorization. The jury deadlocked on a felony conspiracy charge.

Steward said in recent court documents that prosecutors were trying to save face after they didn't get the verdict they sought.

"The government's case is all about making Lori Drew a public symbol of cyberbullying," Steward said. "The government has created a fiction that Lori Drew somehow caused (Megan's) death, and it wants a long prison sentence to make its fiction seem real."

The government has asked U.S. District Judge George Wu to send Drew to prison for three years for violating the terms of service of the MySpace social networking site and fining Drew as much as $300,000.

Steward wants the judge to dismiss the charges. Probation officials have recommended a year of probation.

During the trial, prosecutors argued that Drew violated MySpace rules by helping set up a phony profile for a boy named "Josh Evans" with her then-13-year-old daughter and a business assistant.

Prosecutors believe Drew and her daughter created the profile and sent flirtatious messages to Megan Meier in the boy's name to find out if Megan was spreading rumors about Drew's daughter.

The fake boy then dumped Megan in a message saying the world would be better without her. She hanged herself a short time later in October 2006.

Prosecutors argued that Drew sought to humiliate Megan, who she knew suffered from depression and was suicidal. They also said Drew tried to conceal the scheme after Megan died and avoided taking responsibility.

"A probationary sentence might embolden others to use the Internet to torment and exploit children," Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Krause said in court documents.

Drew was not directly charged with causing Megan's death. Instead, prosecutors indicted her under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which in the past has been used in hacking and trademark theft cases.

The trial was held in Los Angeles because the servers of the social networking site are in the area.

[twinkie1cat]

Don't be calling people retarded yall. Retarded people are often very nice and sensitive to the feelings of others. They are just slow and cannot help that. Calling a person a "retard" is just as bad as using "gay" as a pejorative.

[twinkie1cat]

The mother was a bully and her own daughter a worse one, but the girl who killed herself her mother should have been more in control of, including her access to the internet. She was neglectful. She should have taught her the old "sticks and stones..." while finding out who was sending the ugly messages. I was harrassed and bullied in school too and I did not kill myself over it. Sh made the choice to kill herself rather than deal with the problem or just wait until she got the paperwork and graduated and then made something of herself.

Murder, no nothing close, but taking advantage of a child, bullying and harrassment yes.

[ladypirate2]

She should land in prison because she killed that girl just as surely as if she put that rope around the girl's neck herself!

[billcholee]

this is just a question. what kind of sewer did this piece of trash come from? are there more out there? do they breed in cess pools, do they come from under rocks? her daughter is pig from another planet. locking this hideous ton of flesh up is the least they should do. there is enough garbage in this world. just get rid of her for a long time.

[tiredofit8]

So, if they don't want people to set up false ID's and accounts does that mean that all those child predators can no longer be caught in those police stings MSNBC loves to show? Aren't those cops pretending to be people they are not?

The court should be very careful with this one.
Posted by shortyinmo at 1:54 PM : May 19, 2009


Is shortyinmo serious or just mentally retarded? When law enforcement officials obtain the proper permission to conduct sting operations it is not the same thing as an overweight lesbian wanna be mother with a bull **** haircut bullying another kid. I personally think she should get the death penalty.

Shortyinmo really should get out more and learn about our nations laws and legal system before posting on a public information site. That or repeat first grade!

[ReginaFilangee]

"I believe that drew is responsible for the other girl commiting suicide, she may still be here today if drew had not pushed her over the edge...." ---Posted by gimmee692002 at 1:45 PM : May 19, 2009

Once again, NO ONE can "push someone over the edge" into suicide. The ONLY person who can do that is the person who commits suicide. It comes from within oneself, and one cannot be forced to do it unless they were already going to do it at some point anyway. If one isn't already internally programmed to do it, they CANNOT be "made" to do it.

Saying this girl would still be here were it not for what Drew did is like saying any suicider would still be here if someone hadn't insulted them the day they committed suicide. This girl was going to do it, no matter what. She didn't need any "push"....her parents knew she was already suicidal and neglected her medical needs to address that, as well as the fact that they failed to supervise her adequately in their own home by allowing her unsupervised access to the Internet (specifically a site forbidden to anyone of her age.) THAT combination is what killed their daughter, if anything. They have no business placing blame on anyone else when they FAILED to properly parent their daughter themselves. And the only reason they are responsible is that their daughter was a minor in their care. Had she been an adult responsible for her own medical care, NO ONE would be responsible for her death other than herself.

Drew is scum, that's for sure. But she did not "cause" this girl's death.

The real answer to "...she may still be here today if drew had not pushed her over the edge...." is that she may still be here today IF HER PARENTS PROVIDED PROPER MEDICAL CARE AND PARENTAL SUPERVISION FOR THEIR MINOR DAUGHTER, WHOM THEY KNEW WAS SUICIDAL.

[b-gene]

What everyone has failed to point out here is this: Those two teenage girls should never have been on Myspace in the first place. They were 13 years old and Myspace's user agreement policy prohibits ANYONE under the age of 14 to be a member. Had this woman been a responsible parent, and the mother of the victim been more responsible, this whole Myspace incident wouldn't have had a chance to happen.
Posted by jennifer-marie at 9:52 AM : May 19, 2009

Very good point!!!!

[shortyinmo]

So, if they don't want people to set up false ID's and accounts does that mean that all those child predators can no longer be caught in those police stings MSNBC loves to show? Aren't those cops pretending to be people they are not?

The court should be very careful with this one.

[gimmee692002]

I believe that drew is responsible for the other girl commiting suicide, she may still be here today if drew had not pushed her over the edge with cyber bullying, which is a crime of its own. She should have been charged with the cyber bullying, as well as neglegent homicide

[toldyouso29]

A probationary sentence might embolden others to use the Internet to torment and exploit children," Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Krause said in court documents.


what Drew did was horrible--but trying to imprison her for setting up fictitious accounts would pave the way for a lot more prosecutions...like ANYONE on CBS, Facebook, myspace or on other blogs--who has used a fictitious name to set up a new id or account or email account--all would be prosecutable--that would mean almost everyone who routinely blogs or surfs the net, right?