Updated: Woman is indicted in Missouri MySpace suicide case

[maddezmom]

Woman is indicted in Missouri MySpace suicide case
By LINDA DEUTSCH, AP Special Correspondent

Thursday, May 15, 2008
(05-15) 11:55 PDT LOS ANGELES (AP) --

A Los Angeles federal grand jury has indicted a Missouri woman for her alleged role in a MySpace online hoax played on a 13-year-old girl who committed suicide.

Lori Drew of suburban St. Louis was indicted Thursday on one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress.

Drew allegedly helped create a false-identity MySpace account to contact neighbor Megan Meier who thought she was chatting with a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans.

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

more:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/05/15/financial/f112531D47.DTL&feed=rss.technology

LOS ANGELES Federal prosecutors are seeking an indictment against a Missouri mother for her alleged role in an online hoax played on a 13-year-old girl who committed suicide.

Two law enforcement officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it was going to be announced shortly Thursday, told The Associated Press they are seeking four counts against Lori Drew, whose daughter was feuding with the victim.

Drew allegedly helped create a false MySpace account to contact Megan Meier who thought she was talking with a 16-year-old boy named "Josh Evans." Megan hanged herself in October 2006

more;http://www.mercedsunstar.com/109/story/265815.html

Indictment Expected This Morning in Megan Meier Cyberbullying Case -- Updated
By Kim Zetter May 15, 2008 | 12:31:53 PMCategories: Crime


The U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles is expected to make an announcement this morning about a grand jury indictment in the cyberbullying case that resulted in a young Missouri teenager killing herself.

Authorities won't say who the indictment might target, but the likely suspect is an adult woman named Lori Drew whom authorities in Missouri investigated for her involvement in the scheme. Los Angeles authorities began investigating the case after Missouri authorities decided Drew had broken no laws.

Earlier this year in January the Los Angeles Times reported that a federal grand jury had taken up the case and issued a number of subpoenas to determine if Drew might be charged with defrauding MySpace in creating a false account through which the bullying was done. Los Angeles is considered a valid venue for the investigation because MySpace resides in Beverly Hills.

Drew and two others allegedly created the fake MySpace account of a nonexistent teen named Josh Evans to woo 13-year-old Megan Meier (at right) into his confidence and determine what Meier might be saying about Drew's daughter online (Drew initially told police that she "instigated and monitored" activity on the Josh Evans account but has since denied that she created the account or sent any messages to Meier). Once Meier was pulled in to the ruse, "Josh Evans" turned against her and began attacking her verbally online and saying the world would be better off without her, resulting in Meier committing suicide.

more:http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/05/indictment-expe.html

[maddezmom]

1. Inside The Megan Meier Hoax

Inside The Megan Meier Hoax
Teen witness gave behind-the-scenes account of MySpace suicide case
MAY 15--The key witness in the Megan Meier case is a 19-year-old woman who has admitted setting up a fake MySpace page at the direction of a Missouri woman who sought to secretly determine whether Meier was "saying bad things" about her daughter. Ashley Grills, 19, testified earlier this year before a Los Angeles grand jury probing the circumstances leading to the 13-year-old Meier's suicide in November 2006. A month after Megan's death, Grills was interviewed by investigators working for the Meier family and provided a chilling behind-the-scenes account of the cruel MySpace hoax, which Grills said was hatched by 49-year-old Lori Drew. Grills, pictured at right, reported that Drew's daughter Sarah had a falling out with Meier and that "Lori wanted to set the page up to find out whether Megan had been saying bad things about Sarah." In her interview, which was memorialized in the below report prepared by the Meier investigators, Grills said she felt "deep remorse" for her role in the hoax. Grills reportedly received immunity in return for her testimony before the federal grand jury, which is expected today to hand up an indictment in the Meier probe. (2 pages)

more:http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0515082ashley1.html

[hlthe2b]

2. Good...throw the book at this despiccable woman...

How on earth a "MOTHER" could exploit a teen like this, escapes me.

[devilgrrl]

3. It couldn't be happening to a nicer person

I wish society was this serious about combating bullying when I was a kid.

[sam sarrha]

4. good. this will finally be precedent for public school bullying.. bout time, it is criminal

activity, bullying by even 3rd graders to first graders is "TERRORISM". I FEARED FOR MY LIFE EVERY DAY I PUBLIC SCHOOL.. i was autistic, extremely tall and skinny.. clothes like a begger cause my father drank up all the money, beaten nearly every day by my drunken father, then attacked by gangs of bully's, beaten to the ground and kicked .. i suffered broken ribs twice, sprains from arm twisting..
till after highschool

[yardwork]

20. I'm so sorry that that happened to you!

I enjoy your posts here on DU and had no idea that your childhood was so horrific. I hope that you have found some peace.

:hug:

[sam sarrha]

29. i basically blacked out on my first beer and woke up 26 years later.. i became a Buddhist, and was

blessed with having the guidance if Tenzen Thupwang to bring me out of abject Samsara, to reasonable awakeness for 5 years, 3 meetings a week at the Chenrezig Galupa center. he is a Tibetan Lama we sponsored. he was the chant master for the Dalai Lama's Monastery, and his attendant.

best rehab i have ever heard of... things are better, married to a Buddhist woman i have known for 38 years, dogfather.. i make meditation benches.. i am working on starting a website to sell them, custom benches for older mediators who have bad knees or backs.. i am 59, only the last 9 since i have been meditating have been really good.. i still lose it about the ReThuglicans, we are on the edge of destruction and i dont think they will ever allow equanimity in this world..

The Shock Doctrine:the rise of disaster capitalism by Naomi klein, cheap used at

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=the+shock+doctrine&x=18&y=18

this is what the ReThuglican Party platform is really about, destroying civilization as we know it so that their "UTOPIA" CAN RISE OUT OF THE ASHES...

[liberaldem4ever]

27. I am so, so sorry to hear that happened to you

I was bullied a lot from 3rd grade to the 11nd grade when I finally dropped out of school. It was a real shame because I had straight As most of the time I was in school and it took me many years after I dropped out to start college. To be perfectly honest, I never truly recovered from being emotionally battered for all those years. I'm 45 years old, have been in and out of counseling most of my life with so-so results. The only good thing that came out of that for me is that I'm extremely compassionate and empathetic to everything and everybody. WA state supposedly has anti-bullying laws, but I haven't seen too much enforcement in the schools my sons have attended here. They got bullied a little in Elementary school, but nothing like what I experienced. Anyway, my heart goes out to you over what you had to endure. I know it hurts. :hug:

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Bout bloody time

we need this precedent

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. So what, exactly, was the crime?

[hlthe2b]

8. Fraud, I'd imagine....She set up a fraudulent account with intent

to deceive...

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. My name isn't really Bornaginhooligan.

Did I commit fraud?

[hlthe2b]

12. I don't have a facebook account, but I imagine you sign

an age-related acknowledgement as part of their attempts to combat child predation & pedophilia.
Skinner, on the other hand required no such stipulation when you created your screen name.

[yardwork]

21. It's not??!! Gasp!

You're not really named Bornaginhooligan???!!!!!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

23. Well, it actually is.

So I just committed fraud when I said it wasn't.

Or did I?

[yardwork]

25. If Bornaginhooligans always lie, and Bornaginhooligan says he's lying, then...

[maddezmom]

11. just updated the OP

Lori Drew of suburban St. Louis was indicted Thursday on one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress.

[hlthe2b]

13. Interesting....

[wtmusic]

24. There's actually a law called

"accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress"?

There's one made to order... :crazy:

[Lance_Boyle]

26. What protected computers did she access without authorization?

I thought this was all done through a myspace account accessed from her own computer. It is not, as far as I know, a crime to give false demographic information to a social networking site.

I think most of this will be thrown out.

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

14. Maybe this one:

However, one intriguing possibility is the new federal law prohibiting internet abuse. The new law (passed with little scrutiny in the last Congress) states:

“Whoever…utilizes any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet… without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person…who receives the communications…shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”

[Posteritatis]

18. I don't get the need for making new laws just for net stuff

Bullying is bullying; the venue doesn't matter. Harassment is harassment; fraud is fraud; etc., etc., etc. Folks really need to get past the idea that an offense is somehow different (or worse, or nonexistent) simply because it happens online.

I'm glad to see this wretch is finally facing some charges for, for all practical purposes, killing that kid and all but bragging about it at times. (I seem to recall her setting up a domain or blog or something along those lines basically to say the kid deserved it; can anyone corroborate this? It was a few months ago. I do know she hasn't shown a shred of remorse for her actions or the kid's death.) But it bothers me that new laws have to be created to facilitate that when we've already got applicable ones on the books. I know where I come from, an adult who has a hand in a minor's suicide has some heavy-duty 'splaining to do to say the least.

Whether they're new books or not, though, she'd better have some thrown at her over this.

[sam sarrha]

30. so if i expose ReThuglican lies and they dont like i can go to jail..??

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

7. Took long enough but a good thing..

That an adult would have a part in doing this to a teen is a disgusting facet of what we have become..

That a parent would teach their kids to be sneaky, lying, mean spirited people is even worse..

[magellan]

10. Good!

The only defense Drew has is that she didn't physically string the poor child up in the closet herself. That ain't saying much.

[cynatnite]

15. This case just broke my heart...

It still does :cry:

[Initech]

16. This woman should do life in prison for this.

As someone who was a victim of bullying, if I were on that jury, that woman would get the maximum allowed sentence for this.

[noonwitch]

17. Lori Drew should be shunned, but I'm not sure what crime they can convict her of

But polite society should shun her.

[Posteritatis]

19. They list four charges in the articles. (nt)

[Midlodemocrat]

22. About damned time.

I hope she rots for what she did.

[liberaldem4ever]

28. I've followed this story since it happened

And this woman, Lori Drew, intentionally set out to do as much damage to this little girl as she could. Drew deserves to rot in Hell for what she did, but the last I heard about it there wasn't any laws on the books that she broke. I am just thrilled that there is some way to hold her legally accountable for what she did. My heart just breaks for what happened to Megan and her family. At least maybe now they can get some justice.

[Richard Steele]

31. Good. This POS deserves to have the book thrown at her. nm