The Megan Meier Myspace suicide case *Update: Conviction overturned* see page 23

[sweetneet]

i'm glad the motions for dismissal were rejected. this woman clearly needs to go to jail. What kind of adult (and a MOTHER, at that) would go out of her way to harrass a young girl so badly?

even if the girl (Megan) had supposedly teased Lori's own daughter, that has absolutely no bearing on anything at all. if your child was getting bullied by someone, clearly the smart/sane thing to do would be to talk to the bully's parents or to a teacher. What this woman did was clearly wrong. She not only did it for "revenge", it sounded like she got her kicks from it.

and merika brings up a good point..what if the daughter's suicide had been due to bullying from another child, or for a completely different reason all together? clearly Megan must have been in some very fragile emotional state already for ending up like she did...was her mother aware of that at all?

[Baby Boo]

my heart breaks for her family.. in reading this i got tears in my eyes.. im in shock that there are people out there that are that cruel!!

this is just sick!!!!

[BagLadie]

I just hate myspace.

[Nymph]

I truly hope Lori Drew gets what she deserves, even though it's too late for Megan and her family now.

[twin53]

thanks for the update, roo! i was wondering what was happening in this case.

[thatgurl]

Thank you for the update, Roo. I'm so glad they didn't dismiss the charges. I hope the last one stands up as well. This woman needs to be held responsible for the inconceivable act she committed.

[Charlie]

Thanks for the update Roo, I really hope the jugde rejectes the next motion as well. She does need to sever some time in jail for what she did.

[Megs]

I really appreciate the update and this brings back some sanity in the world

[Vegas Long Legs]

I hope they are able to keep this trial going & convict this animal.
A 50 year old woman can think on her feet faster than a 13 year old. She has more life experience.
Kids bully each other all the time but they are on or close to the same level of awareness.
There is no defense or excuse for what she did. I really see no difference between her or an adult who preys on a kid sexually. Both take away a kids innocence & sense of worth. Megan might have been a tragedy waiting to happen but Lori Drew made that tragedy happen.
There should be no 'contributory negligence' in this case.

[gayathri]

Originally Posted by cristalena56

i just read the megan had it coming blog

That was actually a fake blog by a troll.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/ma...pagewanted=all

[Veelyn]

I'm glad they didn't dismiss these charges. This woman deserves to go to jail. I still cant believe this happened so close to my home.

[legaldiva]

Originally Posted by Vegas Long Legs

I hope they are able to keep this trial going & convict this animal. A 50 year old woman can think on her feet faster than a 13 year old. She has more life experience. Kids bully each other all the time but they are on or close to the same level of awareness. There is no defense or excuse for what she did. I really see no difference between her or an adult who preys on a kid sexually. Both take away a kids innocence & sense of worth. Megan might have been a tragedy waiting to happen but Lori Drew made that tragedy happen. There should be no 'contributory negligence' in this case.

Contributory negligence isn't a defense to a criminal charge ... if I'm not mistaken?

I work in Children's Court, and the more I see, the more I believe that parents are more responsible for the way their children grow/develop/behave than EVER before.

I'd love to charge and prosecute this woman myself ... what a sick person.

[scarlett_2005]

Glad to hear this. The judge made the right decision. Laurie is a sick woman who deserves to rot in jail for what she did.

[Nymph]

Jury gets case of MySpace hoax tied to suicide
Missouri woman accused of targeting teen girl online doesn't testify

updated 8:30 p.m. ET Nov. 24, 2008
LOS ANGELES - A federal jury has gotten the case of a Missouri woman accused of orchestrating an online hoax that preceded the suicide of a teenage neighbor.

The case against 49-year-old Lori Drew of Missouri went to jurors late Monday after closing arguments by both sides.

Prosecutors allege that Drew orchestrated a hoax in which a profile of a fictitious teenage boy was created on MySpace to contact 13-year-old Megan Meier. They say she wanted to know if Megan was spreading rumors about her daughter.

Megan committed suicide in 2006 after receiving a message saying the world would be better off without her.

Drew has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and accessing computers without authorization.

Drew doesn't testify
The defense in the MySpace hoax trial rested Monday without calling Lori Drew to testify on her own behalf, instead relying on her tearful daughter to direct blame elsewhere for an Internet ruse that allegedly led to a teenage girl's suicide.

U.S. District Court Judge George Wu has yet to rule on a defense motion for dismissal on grounds that Drew, 49, could not be held responsible for violating the service rules of the MySpace social networking site because there is no proof she ever read them. In comments to lawyers, the judge cited a rule under which he may wait until after a verdict to rule on the motion.

"In order to violate a terms of service intentionally, a person must have actual knowledge of the exact term and then make it her conscious object to violate it," defense attorney Dean Steward wrote in documents filed during the weekend after making his motion last week.

Prosecutors allege orchestrated hoax
Megan Meier, who had been treated for attention deficit disorder and depression, hanged herself after receiving a message saying the world would be a better place without her.

In the final day of testimony, Drew's daughter, Sarah, portrayed the plan to lure Megan into a romance with the imaginary boy as something that was discussed at the dinner table at home.

But Sarah, who repeatedly answered, "I don't know" and "I don't remember" during cross-examination, insisted that her mother never actually sat down and typed a message from the invented boy to Megan.

Sarah repeatedly brought up Ashley Grills, her mother's business assistant, and portrayed her as the "mean" person who taunted Megan.

At one point she said that she, her mother, her father and Grills sat at the table in her kitchen discussing a possible plan to lure Megan to a shopping mall and confront her with printouts of her conversations with the fictional boy, revealing it was all a hoax.

"It was dinner table conversation," she said under questioning by the prosecutor. "But we thought it wasn't going to happen, so we didn't do it."

Daughter points finger business assistant
She said, however, she did print out at least one of the conversations, which she still has in a file folder in her home.

Sarah said that sometimes her mother would stand behind Grills as Grills wrote messages, but she said her mother never told Grills what to write, nor did she ever type on the keyboard.

On the day when Megan would hang herself in a closet, Sarah said, she knew Grills was sending a message telling Megan that the world would be better without her.

"I told her not to send that last message," Sarah sobbed.

"Why didn't you want her to send it?" asked U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien.

"Because she was my best friend," the witness said.

"Did you think it was mean?" asked the prosecutor.

"Yes," said the witness.

Final message 'mean'
The young witness also testified she knew Megan had been taking medicine for depression and that she had been seeing a psychiatrist. Sarah also said she believed that her mother thought the final message to Megan was "mean," but that her mother was not in the house when it was written and sent. Sarah said her mother arrived home a half-hour later.

Within minutes, she said, they received word that an ambulance was outside Megan's home and she, Grills and Lori Drew raced down the street to see what was happening, but all they learned was that something had happened to Megan.

When her father came home, she said, he instructed Grills to delete all the Josh Evans messages from the MySpace page.

"But she told my dad it didn't matter because it was still on our hard drive," Sarah said.

Sarah said her mother called another girl who had been involved in the message exchanges, and "she told (her) to watch what she said, that something bad had happened to Megan at the MySpace account."

Grills testified earlier in the trial under promise of immunity. Grills said Drew thought the MySpace account was a funny idea and was present about half of the time when Grills and Sarah sent messages to Megan. She also said she remembered one time when Drew typed a message.

In other testimony Monday, Lori Drew's father, Jerry Shreevs, said that neighborhood anger erupted against the Drew family after Megan's suicide. He said neighbors gathered next door and screamed, "Murderer!"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27894751/

[Nymph]

I just hope Lori gets what she deserves, and Megan and her family can finally RIP.