Zoneboy
11-26-2008, 06:05 PM
Link (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/26/AR2008112600629.html?hpid=topnews)
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 26 -- A Missouri woman who posed as a 16-year-old boy on MySpace, wooed and rejected a troubled teenage girl who later committed suicide was found guilty Wednesday of three misdemeanor charges, but no felonies, by a federal jury.
According to published reports, the jury rejected felony charges of accessing a computer without authorization for Lori Drew, the 49-year-old mother from O'Fallon, Mo., who allegedly posed as a 16-year-old boy to harass a former friend of her daughter's. The jury did, however, find Drew guilty of three lesser misdemeanor counts.
The jurors could not reach a verdict on a count of conspiracy.
The verdict in the nationally watched cyber-bullying case comes nearly two years after the death of 13-year-old Megan Meier, referred to in court documents as "M.T.M." Meier hanged herself with a belt in her bedroom closet within an hour of being dumped by "Josh Evans," the fictitious identity that Drew assumed on the popular networking Web site.
A federal grand jury indicted Drew on four counts in May, alleging that she and others, including her daughter Sarah, then 13, and an 18-year-old assistant, registered as a member of MySpace to contact Meier and reel her into what she believed was online romance with a new boy in town. Each count carried a maximum of five years in prison, but Wednesday's lesser misdemeanor charges probably mean no jail time for Drew.
Prosecutors had alleged that Drew and Drew's employee violated MySpace's "terms of service" that prohibit users from using fraudulent registration information, obtaining personal information about juvenile members or using the service to harass, abuse or harm others.
During the five-day trial, they portrayed Drew as the mastermind behind an intentional scheme to humiliate Meier, despite knowing the girl -- once her daughter's best friend -- suffered from depression. Drew wanted to know whether Meier was spreading rumors about her daughter, prosecutors argued, and bragged about the scheme to others.
Defense attorney H. Dean Steward argued that prosecutors tried to mislead jurors into thinking the case was about murder and reminded them that it is a computer case. Specifically, he said, the question before jurors was whether Drew violated the terms-of-service agreement of MySpace -- something, he said, "nobody reads."
Wednesday's verdict underscores the difficulties of the case. Some legal experts and civil liberties groups argued that the prosecution's case would mean that millions of people who violate the terms of service at the Web sites they visit could become criminally liable. Experts also said that if violating terms of service is a crime, then the Web sites that write the agreements essentially could function as lawmakers or prosecutors.
Meier had struggled with depression since third grade, was bullied in school and had self-esteem problems, her parents Ron and Tina Meier said in a television interview a year ago. In 2006, they allowed her to open up a MySpace account under their supervision and said the messages from "Josh" were the first affectionate ones their daughter had ever received.
"He thought she was really pretty," Tina Meier said.
Four weeks into the exchanges, "Josh" broke off the relationship with Meier, her father said, sending a message that "the world would be a better place without" her. Within an hour after receiving it, Meier took her own life.
Meier's father said he logged online days later to contact "Josh," but the profile was deleted. A neighbor later told them that "Josh" was created by a mother down the street, a woman who had attended their daughter's funeral.
The resulting public outrage led state and federal prosecutors in Missouri to examine the case, but after a meeting in March 2007, "it was decided that the case should be declined for federal prosecution," according to an internal memo from the FBI's St. Louis office.
Federal prosecutors in the Los Angeles area, where MySpace's servers are, picked up the case, calling it the first of its kind in the nation.
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 26 -- A Missouri woman who posed as a 16-year-old boy on MySpace, wooed and rejected a troubled teenage girl who later committed suicide was found guilty Wednesday of three misdemeanor charges, but no felonies, by a federal jury.
According to published reports, the jury rejected felony charges of accessing a computer without authorization for Lori Drew, the 49-year-old mother from O'Fallon, Mo., who allegedly posed as a 16-year-old boy to harass a former friend of her daughter's. The jury did, however, find Drew guilty of three lesser misdemeanor counts.
The jurors could not reach a verdict on a count of conspiracy.
The verdict in the nationally watched cyber-bullying case comes nearly two years after the death of 13-year-old Megan Meier, referred to in court documents as "M.T.M." Meier hanged herself with a belt in her bedroom closet within an hour of being dumped by "Josh Evans," the fictitious identity that Drew assumed on the popular networking Web site.
A federal grand jury indicted Drew on four counts in May, alleging that she and others, including her daughter Sarah, then 13, and an 18-year-old assistant, registered as a member of MySpace to contact Meier and reel her into what she believed was online romance with a new boy in town. Each count carried a maximum of five years in prison, but Wednesday's lesser misdemeanor charges probably mean no jail time for Drew.
Prosecutors had alleged that Drew and Drew's employee violated MySpace's "terms of service" that prohibit users from using fraudulent registration information, obtaining personal information about juvenile members or using the service to harass, abuse or harm others.
During the five-day trial, they portrayed Drew as the mastermind behind an intentional scheme to humiliate Meier, despite knowing the girl -- once her daughter's best friend -- suffered from depression. Drew wanted to know whether Meier was spreading rumors about her daughter, prosecutors argued, and bragged about the scheme to others.
Defense attorney H. Dean Steward argued that prosecutors tried to mislead jurors into thinking the case was about murder and reminded them that it is a computer case. Specifically, he said, the question before jurors was whether Drew violated the terms-of-service agreement of MySpace -- something, he said, "nobody reads."
Wednesday's verdict underscores the difficulties of the case. Some legal experts and civil liberties groups argued that the prosecution's case would mean that millions of people who violate the terms of service at the Web sites they visit could become criminally liable. Experts also said that if violating terms of service is a crime, then the Web sites that write the agreements essentially could function as lawmakers or prosecutors.
Meier had struggled with depression since third grade, was bullied in school and had self-esteem problems, her parents Ron and Tina Meier said in a television interview a year ago. In 2006, they allowed her to open up a MySpace account under their supervision and said the messages from "Josh" were the first affectionate ones their daughter had ever received.
"He thought she was really pretty," Tina Meier said.
Four weeks into the exchanges, "Josh" broke off the relationship with Meier, her father said, sending a message that "the world would be a better place without" her. Within an hour after receiving it, Meier took her own life.
Meier's father said he logged online days later to contact "Josh," but the profile was deleted. A neighbor later told them that "Josh" was created by a mother down the street, a woman who had attended their daughter's funeral.
The resulting public outrage led state and federal prosecutors in Missouri to examine the case, but after a meeting in March 2007, "it was decided that the case should be declined for federal prosecution," according to an internal memo from the FBI's St. Louis office.
Federal prosecutors in the Los Angeles area, where MySpace's servers are, picked up the case, calling it the first of its kind in the nation.