Mom: Verdict shows cyberbullies will be punished

[BlueJessamine]

Source: AP News

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The mother of a girl who committed suicide at age 13 after being subjected to an Internet hoax says a woman's conviction in the case shows that people who use the "Internet as a weapon" will face consequences.

Lori Drew, 49, of O'Fallon, Mo., was convicted Wednesday in federal court in Los Angeles on misdemeanor charges of accessing computers without authorization in a landmark cyberbullying trial, though her lawyer said he still hopes a judge will dismiss the charges against her.

Prosecutors said Drew and two others created a fictitious 16-year-old boy on MySpace and sent flirtatious messages from him to teenage neighbor Megan Meier. The "boy" dumped Megan in 2006, telling her: "The world would be a better place without you."

Megan hanged herself with a belt in her bedroom closet.

Megan's mother, Tina Meier, said in a telephone interview Friday that she'll ask at sentencing that Drew serve the maximum penalty, three years in prison and a $300,000 fine.


Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gg5xCtQtLBF6vJqWXStItGEOsJfwD94O75JG1

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On the Web:

WiredSafety.org http://www.wiredsafety.org/


WIRED: Dead Teen's Mother: Misdemeanor Convictions a 'Stepping Stone' in Cyberbullying Case

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/lori_drew_trial/index.html

[azurnoir]

1. What the hell kind of 49 yr old women

"creates" a 17 yr old boy to "flirt" with a 13 yr old girl? The charges are not enough as this women's actions border on pedophilia

[hlthe2b]

2. Have they said if they are going to file civil suit?

They should...

[pitohui]

6. oh i'm sure profiting from the death of this troubled child was the plan all along

c'mon, this is bullshit, the woman has been convicted of creating a false persona on myspace -- she has not been, nor should she have been, convicted of killing anyone because she didn't, the child killed herself and the parents must blame someone, anyone, other than themselves and if there's a buck in it too...so the better

if concealing one's true ID on the internet is a crime, we are all criminals, every damn one of us -- any sensible person conceals their ID to some extent on the internet, it is the nut unable to think of the future who DOESN'T

she did not kill anyone and while it's sad that the child had a mental illness, i'm not quite sure why we should be guilty of manslaughter or murder or anything else if a person with an untreated mental illness commits suicide

if this IS a case of manslaughter, the child's OWN mother and doctors and teachers should be first in the dock before random internet assholes

[KittyWampus]

8. the woman was a "friend" of the family & KNEW the teen was mentally ill, the teen WAS getting

treated and this woman didn't just conceal her identity, she did it was the INTENT of tormenting that young woman.

That guilty woman engaged in totally reckless behavior. And she did so with full knowledge of the teen's mental illness.

[pitohui]

10. read post no. 7

i'm aware that the woman knew the child was mentally ill, from the sound of it, the lady is mentally ill herself, but she really did very little and she wasn't even present when the boy sent the email that caused the child to commit suicide

to say she's guilty of any crime other than being a tacky bitch is really quite a stretch!

she's guilty of nothing except people don't like her which shouldn't be a matter for the criminal courts

[jrockford]

15. It wasn't a murder case. It was a case involving criminal misuse

which is what she did.

Whether you are clever enough to understand it or not, she was misusing a site for criminal purposes with the intent of causing emotional distress. That is not legal.

What's bullshit is you thinking this is "bullshit" and that this was part of the plan all along. It is disturbing that you believe this family is not upset and grieved by the loss of their child, that their motivation is for profit. I find that quite disturbing, especially considering the circumstances involved here and it is rather apparent that this had a significant relevancy with regard to the teen's suicide.

Your other post on disease, etc, is crap too. You may call yourself a progressive, but you are as insensitive as anyone I would see at Free Republic. Let me guess, you don't think prisoners should get properly prepared meals either? Your compassion is inspiring.

[hlthe2b]

19. Bullshit... This woman was complicit in that child's death

Let a jury decide. Perhaps after reviewing all the facts, they may decide that no one person is more or less responsible for this tragedy.


However, who says the parents want to profit? If it were me, I would want to send a major message to those adults who would exploit children on the internet in this way and any proceeds I received would go to further that educational message--to other parents. And, yes, IMO that woman who tormented that 13 yo child is guilty of manslaught.

[regnaD kciN]

3. Yeah, they'll be "punished"...

...with a slap on the wrist. :grr:

To my mind, anyone involved with this should have been charged with murder.

[jeff30997]

4. I totally agree.

Slap on the wrist indeed.:(

[Demobrat]

5. No. Not murder. The death wasn't intentional.

She's guilty of involuntary manslaughter, and that's what she should have been charged with and found guilty of. That she wasn't is a travesty of justice.

Involuntary Manslaughter - no intent to kill, but the death is caused by criminal negligence or recklessness

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=318617

[pitohui]

7. the death was caused by suicide -- it was caused by disease not by the acts of others

you know, for decades we have been taught that depression/suicide is a disease caused by bad chemicals in the brain

it is not caused by the actions of others

are you saying that all those doctors thru all those years lied?

the actions of others don't cause people to kill themselves, mental illness cause people to kill themselves

there were people in concentration camps, hell, there are people in gitmo today, who don't kill themselves who are subjected to far worse than some random email from some random boy (which didn't happen to be written by this lori drew) saying "you suck i don't like you so die already!"

either we believe that depression is disease or we don't, either suicide is the fault of friends, families, acquaintances, or whatever, or it isn't -- and truly truly it ISN'T -- it's a disease, our words don't magically make it worse or better

a sane healthy person would have laughed at that email. i've gotten worse and laughed and i'm not exactly mental health week myself

[Demobrat]

9. So if somebody's being tortured

and commits suicide to end the pain, the death was caused by a disease? Sorry, no. Torture can be mental as well as physical, and while the child may have been neither sane nor healthy, and we have no way of knowing that, she was tortured and she stopped the pain the only way she knew how.

[pitohui]

12. she wasn't being tortured, she got an email, an email that lori drew DIDN'T send

lori drew wasn't even THERE when the boy sent the email that caused the child to kill herself

however, lori drew is older and has assets, the boy who sent the cruel email is a teen and has no assets

hence the attack on lori drew, it's classic "deep pockets" crap

when a child commits suicide, because of an EMAIL, i think if anyone's guilty of manslaughter you need to look at the parents and the doctor first -- what if any help was this child getting? were the meds of the right dose for a child that age?

i had worse things said to my face at that age, and so did you, and so did all of us, and killing ourselves over it and giving pleasure to the enemy was i'm afraid the last thing on our minds -- the child had a disease, her parents didn't get her help in time or her doctors weren't competent, and it's very sad but it's not a criminal case

i know girls who were raped at that age, whose victimizers didn't get half the attention (well, really ANY of the attention) that this case is getting, why? because of the myspace gimmick...it's bullshit, total bullshit

people have a right to be whoever they want to be on the internet, they can change their age, their gender, their race, it's the one playground where we are all equal and can be who we like without dragging our bodies around

somebody doesn't like that, somebody is angry that people fib about who they are on myspace

oh dear me oh my! and lori drew is soooo unlikeable

[Ms. Toad]

14. What boy do you think sent the e-mail?

"Josh Evans" was completely made up by three individuals - all female. There is no real Josh Evans. Lori Drew, her 13 year old daughter, and a family employee named Ashley created the fake boy to torment Megan Meiers.

[pitohui]

17. ashley sent the email, lori drew wasn't there

sorry, for some reason i thought ashley was a boy, i guess that's pretty silly but it is not relevant to the point

if you really think lori drew is guilty of anything in this how can you post on the internet at all?

what if i was mentally ill and killed myself because you caught me in a typo? would you want your family beggared because of that? oh, but it's different if it's YOU, it's ok if it's someone unpopular

[Ms. Toad]

22. For what it's worth,

I didn't say anything about whether I thought Lori was guilty of anything.

I was just pointing out the irony in you blasting people for not reading in a thread in which your posts seemed to indicate you, yourself, were not reading (i.e. you seemed to believe there was a real boy involved in the cyber-bullying).

[Politicalboi]

27. That's different

This was an emotional teenager. Lori Drew knew she had problems. Lori Drew knew even if the girl didn't have problems you don't do this to a 13 year old girl no matter what. This took time. Telling you about a typo and you kill yourself wouldn't be my fault because I don't know your limitations. Lori Drew knew what she was doing, and she should spend time in jail. Had Lori been talking sex with Megan she would be in jail.

[Berry Cool]

11. The girl was deliberately tormented.

If you knew someone was an alcoholic, would you keep plying them with booze? This woman essentially did the equivalent...and worse, she did it because it gave her pleasure to do so.

[pitohui]

13. she didn't send the email that caused the suicide, christ, does NO ONE read before posting? EOM

.

[Politicalboi]

28. Maybe your right

But SHE built it up to this point. Had Josh been some kid in a chat room who told her "The world would be a better place without her" I doubt she would have killed herself. Lori Drew built this up. It doesn't matter who sent the last message. And how do we know she didn't send it? If a child had been abused and malnourished does it really matter who delivered the last blow when the child is being abused?

[LisaL]

30. How do we know Drew didn't send it? Maybe because

Ashley Grills admitted to doing it? What do you even know about the story?

[jrockford]

16. You're right on one thing, you're not exactly mental health week - as shown by your posts. nt

[bitchkitty]

20. That's a callous thing to say.

A sane, healthy person? Your tone suggests disdain for the mentally ill, and disregard for others who might be more emotionally fragile than you. Most thirteen year olds have their share of emotional problems - a mother of another teenager should have known better.

That said, I think the charges were bullshit too. They prosecute people who troll for children online - and she should be prosecuted for child abuse. She clearly meant to cause emotional harm to a child she knew was ill.

[jrockford]

18. The intent was to cause severe emotional damage. The intent was criminal AND if death is a result

of criminal intent, it is not considered, necessarily, involuntary. It certainly wasn't criminal negligence or recklessness. There was nothing "criminally accidental" - this was methodical and planned.

[LisaL]

23. No it wasn't. Drew wanted to find out what Megan was posting

about Drew's daughter.
By the way, do you all here know what TOS for the websites you post on are? Judging by the same standard, I bet most people who use the net could be criminally charged.

[missingfink]

24. It will not surprise me to (someday) find out that ................

the person who actually sent the message about the 'world will be a better place without' Megan Meyer to have been Lori Drew's 13 year old daughter - who was an on & off friend of Megan. I believe the mom is taking the heat in place of the daughter.

[LisaL]

25. No it's not Drew's daughter who did that.

Ashley Grills, a 19 year old, admitted to sendig that message. Drew did not do it. By the way Grills also admits to setting up that account. Yet she was given immunity while Drew was prosecuted.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Story?id=4560582&page=1

[jrockford]

33. Doesn't matter. Drew orchestrated it.

If you plan something, even if you don't take part in it, you are complicit.

It is not uncommon or unprecedented to go after the person that planned the crime.

[LisaL]

35. That is not true either.

Grills also admitted it was her idea to set up the account.
http://publicbroadcasting.net/kwmu/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1420859§ionID=1

[jrockford]

34. I highly doubt, judging by how remorseless Drew appears, that she would take

the heat for her daughter. Her "it's not like I pulled the trigger" and attendance of the wake seems rather sociopath to me.

[LisaL]

36. Drew doesn't have to take heat for her daughter because

another teenager had already admitted to sending that message and setting up that account.

[Politicalboi]

29. So pretending to be

A young boy is the way to go about it? If she had any guts she would have talked to Megan's mom. She should be put in jail and made to pay the $300,000. Apparently she wan't too interested in what Megan was saying about her daughter. Otherwise this never would have happened. Lori Drew is a piece of shit.

[LisaL]

26. Well that's nonsense. The girl killed herself.

Using your logic, if you say something mean to a suicidal person, and the person kills him or herself, you should end up in prison for "involuntary manslaughter."

[jrockford]

32. Naa

That isn't how this case is at all.

It is above and beyond "saying something mean". Anyone can suggest straw men and knock the argument down, but that isn't how the law works. This will make an excellent tort case and I hope she takes it to civil court.

[sasquatch]

21. Wow, the Mom is really milking this for all that it's worth

You can bet she sees $$$$.

[jrockford]

31. You can bet that eh? I wouldn't bet on it. How deep of pockets do you think Drew has? nt

[nightrain]

37. I wonder if that woman was repeating some similar

dynamic that happened to her as a young person, and then this time it got entirely dangerous and scary.