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Lori Drew Case Dismissed: MySpace Mom Caused Megan Meier Suicide

by Tina Kells | July 2, 2009 at 05:13 pm

821 views | 38 Recommendations | 12 comments

Lori Drew, the bully mom who's online harassment of 13-year old Megan Meier caused the girl to commit suicide in 2006, had had her criminal case dismissed on July 2, 2009 in an LA courtroom. In 2008 Lori Drew was found guilty of three counts of misdemeanor access to a protected computer without permission for which she could have served three years in jail.

Lori Drew's July 2, 2009 court appearance would have been a sentencing hearing had U.S. District Judge George Wu upheld her conviction. Instead Judge Wu agreed with a defense motion that a federal anti-hacking statute had been misapplied in the case. Prosecutors are free to file an appeal of Judge Wu's dismissal.

In 2006 Lori Drew, an adult, set up a fake MySpace account in the persona of a 13-year old boy for the sole purpose of harassing young Megan Meier. Megan Meier had a heavy crush on the real boy who Lori Drew impersonated. The things Drew said to Megan under the guise of being the young boy were deliberately cruel and hurtful.

Drew teased and tormented Megan Meier to such a severe extent that the 13-year old decided to commit suicide to escape. Megan Meier hung herself in her bedroom after enduring Lori Drew's repeated cyber attacks via MySpace.

Drew had faced a sentence ranging from probation to three years behind bars on the three misdemeanor counts. Had the judge upheld the conviction, she had been scheduled to be sentenced at Thursday's hearing.

Instead, the judge said he was tentatively granting the defense motion to throw out the convictions and would render a final, written opinion at some point in the future.

Some legal experts have criticized the prosecution of Drew on the basis of an anti-hacking statute -- the first case of its kind -- saying the law was intended to punish people who break into computers to steal information.

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Rhonda J Mangus

at 17:26 on July 2nd, 2009

Disappointing news, indeed.

Paschen

at 18:25 on July 2nd, 2009

Disappointing in deed.

QueensHart

at 19:24 on July 2nd, 2009

What a very sick woman to do this to a child.. A freaky kind of bully... a new kind of bully..

a woman? She should be severely punished.

sara star

at 19:26 on July 2nd, 2009

Dearest Mother...

No justice for the victim, who was young and vulnerable and no one to protect her.

Tina Kells

at 19:28 on July 2nd, 2009

I agree, there is no excuse for this woman's actions and she should be in prison for her crime.

albertacowpoke

at 19:30 on July 2nd, 2009

She got off on a technicality. Disgraceful

Beaulieu

at 01:51 on July 3rd, 2009

Disgraceful.

QueensHart

at 06:00 on July 3rd, 2009

I suppose schools must step up and start using these "fairy tales" to educate kids on what can be behind the printed word. A visit from the local policemen speaking in the gym is not enough. 'don't speak to strangers' has become more sophisticated for the criminals

HMMM..our society is full of creeps who got off on a technicality.

I would be willing to bet this woman has few friends and may have to move. A rocky marriage can also collapse from crazy behavior like this. She may be a sociopath who will never awaken to her moral and mental illness.

billnaples

at 08:47 on August 20th, 2009

Suspect neither of us is a lawyer. Bet is this does not qualify as a technicality. The judge dismissed the convictions based on the inappropriate charges under the CFAA satute.

CarmenSo (not verified)

at 09:08 on July 4th, 2009

the family of that girl should sue them into the dust

billnaples

at 06:01 on August 4th, 2009

I very much understand the desire for vigilante justice in this case. If all of the information that you have read were supported by the testimony and evidence submitted in this case you could make a strong case for asking why Missouri authorities could not have charged Drew with some criminal act. But that information, including some of what Ms. Kells has reported here, is NOT fact. And quite frankly some very material information seems to always be omitted when this story is reported about. Just a few facts. A. The phony Josh was 16 not 13. B. Josh was the creation of Lori Drew's daughter and a Drew employee, Ashley Grills. C. As I recall testimony indicated that almost all of the messages to Megan were positive and enticing (u r sexi, etc.). D. Almost all of the messages came from Ashley and Drew's daughter. E. The final message (world better off without you...) was not on MySpace but rather was from an AOL source and was directly from Grills, NOT DREW. F. Grills testified she sent that to try to get Megan to back away from "Josh". G. Maybe most significant was that following that last message the testimony was that Megan went to her mother for comfort and sympathy. Her mother got angry and they had a parent/child fight. Mom told her to get off the computer and Megan left in a huff telling mom that she should support her more. And then, some 30 minutes after that fight the young girl hung herself. Read the testimony, these are facts!

billnaples

at 07:45 on August 13th, 2009

I have shared directly with Ms. Kells the remarks contained in my prior post. To date she has apparently not had the time to review the testimony to confirm the truth of what I posted. As noted for many on this case it may not change what you think of Lori Drew and that is okay. But I believe that posters should have facts behind their opinions, not just emotions. It's also good to be passionate about your side of a story, but please, especially if you want to be respected as a journalist at least get the facts of your story correct. She (Kells) should be posting the corrections.