LOS ANGELES, July 2, 2009
Judge May Throw Out MySpace Mom Conviction
Woman Who Harassed 13-Year-Old, Driving Her to Suicide, Not Guilty of Computer Crimes, Judge Says
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Lori Drew, a Missouri women who allegedly perpetrated a MySpace hoax that drove her daughter's 13-year-old classmate to suicide, leaves court Thursday Sept. 4, 2008 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
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U.S. District Judge George Wu said he was acquitting Lori Drew of misdemeanor counts of accessing computers without authorization but stressed the ruling was tentative until he issues it in writing. He noted the case of a judge who changed his mind after ruling.
Drew showed no reaction to the decision.
She was convicted in November, but the judge said that if she is to be found guilty of illegally accessing computers, anyone who has ever violated the social networking site's terms of service would be guilty of a misdemeanor. That would be unconstitutional, he said.
"You could prosecute pretty much anyone who violated terms of service," he said.
Prosecutors had sought the maximum three-year prison sentence and a $300,000 fine, but it had been uncertain going into Thursday's hearing whether Drew would be sentenced.
Wu had given a lengthy review to a defense request for dismissal, delaying sentencing from May to go over testimony from two prosecution witnesses.
Wu said he allowed the case to proceed to trial when Drew was charged with a felony, but she was convicted only of the misdemeanor and that presented constitutional problems.
Drew, whose bond was exonerated by the judge, did not appear with her attorney when he later spoke to reporters.
Defense attorney Dean Steward said outside court that the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles should not have brought the charges in a case that originated in Missouri and was rejected by prosecutors there.
"Shame on the U.S. attorney for bringing this case. The St. Louis prosecutors had it right," Steward said. "The cynic in me says that (U.S. Attorney) Tom O'Brien wanted to make a name for himself or to keep his job."
O'Brien told a press conference that after prosecutors see the written ruling they will consider options, including an appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
"I'm proud of this case," he said. "This is a case that called out for someone to do something. It was a risk. But this office will always take risks on behalf of children."
Steward said the ruling should mark the end of Drew's criminal case.
"It's not the end of the road, it's the end of the chapter on the criminal side, which is pretty clearly the end," he said.
The parents of Megan Meier, the teenager who killed herself, were in court for the ruling. Later, her mother, Tina Meier, said that in spite of the disappointment, she felt that justice was done because "we got the word out."
Tina Meier said she is devoting her life to educating parents and teachers about potential threats to their children lurking in the Internet.
Much attention has been paid to Drew's case, primarily because it was the nation's first cyberbullying trial. The trial was held in Los Angeles because the servers of the social networking site are in the area.
Prosecutors say Drew sought to humiliate Megan by helping create a fictitious teen boy on the social networking site and sending flirtatious messages to the girl in his name. 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 in the St. Louis suburb of Dardenne Prairie, Mo.
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.
Wu acknowledged in May he was concerned that sending Drew to prison for violating a Web site's service terms might set a dangerous precedent. Wu at the time noted that millions of people either don't read service terms, as happened in Drew's case.
During the trial, prosecutors argued that Drew violated MySpace service rules by setting up the phony profile for a boy named "Josh Evans" with the help of her then-13-year-old daughter Sarah and business assistant Ashley Grills. They posted a photo of a bare-chested boy with tousled brown hair.
"Josh" then told Megan she was "sexi" and assured her, "i love you so much."
Prosecutors believe Drew and her daughter, who was friends with Megan, created the profile to find out if Megan was spreading rumors about Sarah. Grills testified she received a message from Megan in mid-2006, calling Drew's daughter a lesbian.
Grills, who testified under a promise of immunity, allegedly sent the final, insulting message to Megan before she killed herself. Prosecutors said Megan sent a response saying, "'You are the kind of boy a girl would kill herself over."'
Jurors decided Drew was not guilty of the more serious felonies of intentionally causing emotional harm while accessing computers without authorization. The jury could not reach a unanimous verdict on a felony conspiracy charge. The judge dismissed it Thursday at the request of prosecutors.
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See all 54 CommentsAll of that being said, however, I think that Lori Drew's actions, in taking the time and trouble to create a fictitious online personality and use it to develop a false and misleading relationship with a 13-year old girl, reek of mental illness"
Not when you dont know the COMPLETE inside story, it had come out that the kid was doing similar things to others...
I don't recall hearing that the kid was doing this stuff. But whether she was or not, this kid was a CHILD and she was an ADULT. I expect more from an adult.
It's funny how everyone always thinks that a child should be punished for the things they do, but what about the parents? Kids are immature and you can sort of understand and expect them to do stupid things, but an adult should know better. If an adult is neglectful or abusive to a child, there should be consequences for them as well. Especially when it leads to injury or death.
A fine and community service?? and what good is that going to do? it's meaningless
Well it's better than letting her get away with no consequences at all! That's the problem today, there are no consequences for people's actions. That's why they just keep on doing the same thing over and over and over.
Not when you dont know the COMPLETE inside story, it had come out that the kid was doing similar things to others, this wass probably the kind of kid you read about who is a neighborhood hel1-raising brat who did so many nasty underhanded things, as well as spreading libel about one of the accused calling her a lesbian, that people such as Lori decided someone had to do SOMETHING about it to teach her a lesson because MOM was a total failure!
According to the story when it first came out, mom "told" the kid to get off the computer and she didn't, mom left to go to an appointment and CALLED and found the kid still messing on the computer and told her to get off it (she still didnt) and when she got home and found the kid still on the computer a fight/argument resulted.
Now that all says totally ineffective mom, one who was would have made sure the kid was OFF the machine the first time, or pulled the power plug out to do it!
So we already know mom was an ineffective wimp who let her kid do pretty much whatever she wanted with little repercussions.
We also know mom let her kid carry on a relationship with a total stranger claiming to be a boy friend, never once checking this "boy" out to be sure he wasnt say, a pedophile!
That's strike 2 and confirms mom was an ineffective wimp who let her kid do whatever.
Id bet money the kid was a neighborhood PEST who did all kinds of nasty things to others, sort of like "nasty Nellie" in Little House on the Prairie, and she got a reaction from totally fed up people who probably asked MOM to deal with it but she didnt..
Megan Meier's suicide was not Lori Drew's fault. Lori Drew did not cause Megan Meier to feel suicidal; suicidal tendencies are a symptom of a mental illness, such as clinical depression, and mental illness cannot be caused by other people saying mean things to you. Mental illness doesn't just "happen", it's caused by physical factors. It's also not contagious, and even if it were, you couldn't catch it over the Internet.
What Lori Drew did was certainly despicable, but it did not cause Megan Meier's suicide. Nor did Megan Meier's parents cause her suicide by failing to properly monitor her Internet usage or her real-life social interaction with other people. Megan Meier's suicide was caused by her mental illness.
No matter what the movies and daytime soaps would have you believe, it is not possible to harass a mentally healthy person until they "go insane" or "become suicidal". Mentally healthy people have healthy ways to deal with stress caused by harassment or emotional abuse. Obviously, Megan Meier did not, since she was mentally ill, and that lack of healthy coping mechanisms is what led to her suicide. Had she not killed herself over the fictitious boy made up by Lori Drew, she probably would have done so over a real boy, or over an argument with a friend, or over a bad grade, or some other excuse. Or even, as so many kids do, over no excuse at all; that's why so many teen suicides wind up with hundreds of people screaming, "WHY!? WHY!?" - there IS no logical reason for it, because it's caused by the irrationality of a mentally ill mind.
Bad things happening will not, in and of themselves, cause a person to commit suicide. Suicides are caused by mental illness; the bad things are mere rationalizations, used as scapegoats by people who don't understand that mentally ill people do irrational things like ending their own lives for no good reason. We constantly seek to lay blame on a tangible object or person, so that we may seek vengeance on that which we blame, in an effort to gain closure and heal the wounds that a suicide causes in us. But in truth, we have no one and nothing to blame for a suicide, other than the mental illness of the person who commits suicide.
All of that being said, however, I think that Lori Drew's actions, in taking the time and trouble to create a fictitious online personality and use it to develop a false and misleading relationship with a 13-year old girl, reek of mental illness themselves. They are the actions of an obsessed person. And while those actions do not fit the definition of stalking, since Megan Meier could easily have avoided all contact with the fictitious boy - even without avoiding the Internet - the obsession behind the actions is the same type of obsession that can eventually lead to actual stalking behavior.
Not only that, but Lori Drew roped her daughter and her assistant into the scheme, which seems like the behavior of a cult leader - narcissistic, self-absorbed, perhaps even megalomaniacal.
So while I don't think Lori Drew should go to jail for "cyber-bullying", or to assuage the grief of those who incorrectly blame her for Megan Meier's suicide, I certainly do think that Lori Drew is in need of long-term psychiatric help. If she is, indeed, mentally ill herself, then she might pose a danger to herself or others, particularly her own 13-year old daughter, and particularly with all of the stress that these legal proceedings have brought upon her. If she's mentally ill, she could be paranoid; she might blame her daughter for the whole thing and act out violently.
Sometimes there is no one to blame. Sometimes there is no one on whom to wreak vengeance. Sometimes, we just have to deal with the pains of life, or death, as they come.
If there were real justice in the USA, most prosecutors would be in prison for perjury, falsifying evidence, and subversion of justice.
I guess when you have massive killings going on every other day, some woman traumatizing some poor child to the point of killing herself means nothing.
And what kind of "punishment" should we dole out to people like her?....making them be nice to people? You going to pay for that out of your own pocket?
You should try living in the real world, and think about all the real life ramifications of what you're saying and how they would impact society as a whole instead of just whining and moaning in your own fantasy world on here.
How about a fine and some community service?
And as far as the impact on society goes, maybe if people were held responsible for their actions more, you wouldn't have kids growing up shooting and killing each other. If parents were made to pay the consequences of their stupidity, like leaving their kids unattended so they can fall of cliffs, get stuck in dishwashers, dying in hot cars, just to name a few, then maybe they would wise up.
I think it is you that is living in a fantasy world. You are so used to living in a violent world that you have become desensitized to what's going on around you. Your world is DECAYING. Have you taken a really good look at it lately?
And I would appreciate it if you would refrain from "labeling" me. I am not a Liberal or a Conservative. You Americans may like to LABEL people, but where I come from, we don't live under labels-------------
You just did the same thing by making this statement.
Yeah? So you don't like being called an "American"? How come? Isn't that what you are?
No one is going to MAKE a kid kill themselves, the kid was on medications for depression and more, it's been well documented some of these drugs have caused suicidal thoughts and tendencies.
No, no one could MAKE a kid kill themselves, but this woman definitely made her WANT to kill herself. This women put her over the edge. Would it have happened eventually? Maybe, maybe not. That fact remains that this women sent her over the edge, and made her WANT to kill herself.
A knife cuts both ways. Wrong or not, ugly or not, she cannot be charged for this--lest we all be charged for the things we write, if the person or any person who reads them decides what we wrote is worth their own life. slippery slope, indeed.
Blame the parents if you want for being ignorant, oblivious, negligent or foolish. The fact is, this woman was dispicably cruel and intentionally so. She tricked her, stalked her and then tormented her. Yet, people want to hold her responsible because her self esteem was low or she was insecure and lonely. Riducule the victim and the family for some low life broad. Ya, that's justice.
"there" should be "their".
What you emotional right wingers fail to remember is...
And I would appreciate it if you would refrain from "labeling" me. I am not a Liberal or a Conservative. You Americans may like to LABEL people, but where I come from, we don't live under labels.
You just did the same thing by making this statement.
Public disdain does NOT warrant a prison sentence for this woman.
I'm not saying that she should necessarily have to go to prison, but she most definitely should have some sort of punishment.
And I am a firm believer in punishment for parents who don't look after their kids properly, too. Too many kids are getting hurt and dying because of there parents stupidity. It needs to STOP.
by erasmus111 July 2, 2009 5:46 PM PDT
This is what I was referring to ....... Is it okay to do something like this? No. Too, it's NOT AGAINST THE LAW! Public disdain does NOT warrant a prison sentence for this woman. And what if it HAD BEEN ANOTHER CHILD? This type of cruelty is common place among teens. The answer is not punishing this woman. The answer is making children (emotionally) stronger.
Far as I'm concerned MOM is completely responsible as she had the "key" to the computer, it's access and software and FAILED to ensure her kid wasnt communicating with a pedo or someone else looking to do harm.
I agree that the MOM AND DAD are responsible. Parents should not be allowing their kids to have free access to the computer. BUT, I do not agree that this other woman shouldn't be punished. We aren't talking about another kid her age pulling a little prank, here. We are talking about an ADULT who deliberately set out to hurt this child. She needs to be punished for it. Is this something you teach your child to do? If she gets away with it, then tht means that everyone else will figure it's okay to do stuff like that.
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