MySpace Suicide Case Ends With Mixed Verdict
Posted November 26, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The end of a very long story we’ve been following for almost two years arrived in a Los Angeles courtroom on Wednesday.
A Missouri mother has been found guilty in the so-called MySpace Suicide case. Lori Drew was convicted of three minor offences in connection to a major tragedy.
The case of the 49-year-old mother attracted worldwide attention because of its implications for prosecuting other cyberbullying crimes.
It began in 2006 when Drew became suspicious of what a next-door-neighbour’s daughter was saying about her own child online. She ordered a co-worker to set up a fake MySpace page featuring a handsome hunk named “Josh Evans.”
When the non-existent boy befriended Megan Meier, a fragile and troubled 13-year-old, she was thrilled. But when the joke went too far and Evans told her the world would ‘better off without her,’ the teen ran upstairs and hung herself with a belt. She died in hospital the next day.
Officials in Missouri couldn’t find anything to charge Drew with, and the mom blamed her employee for the scheme. That worker later testified for the state in the case, insisting Drew knew exactly what was going on.
With no laws that fit, authorities in California, where MySpace is based, laid charges normally used to fight hackers.
But when the judge decided to allow testimony about the suicide in, it became something of a pseudo-murder trial and the defence became worried the jury would see it that way.
In the end, though, they only found Drew guilty of three lesser charges of accessing a computer without authorization.
She wasn’t found culpable of more serious allegations, including accessing a computer without authorization to inflict emotional distress. And a conspiracy charge wound up being declared a mistrial. It’s not clear if she’ll be retried on that count.
Drew could have faced 20 years in prison for each of the more serious counts, but instead is now looking at the possibility of just a year for each of the three guilty verdicts and a $100,000 fine.
She has always maintained her innocence and it’s not clear if she’ll have to serve any time.
