Court Awaits Decision On MySpace Suicide Case
Prosecutors argued on Monday that the tragic suicide of a Missouri teen could have been avoided had she not been tormented online by a mom who lived a few houses away.
A federal case was brought against Missouri woman Lori Drew, who is accused of posing as a teen boy on the MySpace social networking website to tease and humiliate 13-year-old Megan Meier, who later committed suicide.
The jury will begin deliberating on Tuesday after prosecutors told jurors that Drew, her daughter and a teenage employee created the profile in a plan to publicly embarrass Meier and get back at her for saying bad things about Drew’s daughter.
U.S. Attorney Thomas O’Brien said in his closing arguments that the tragedy in the case wasn’t just Megan Meier’s suicide.
"It’s the fact that it was so preventable. If, as a 47-year-old woman Lori Drew was so upset that Megan Meier had called her daughter ugly or a lesbian, she could have gone over and talked to her mom and we wouldn’t be here," he said.
Drew’s attorney reminded jurors that Drew is not accused of homicide in Meier’s death, despite it being an unfortunate incident.
"Please do not add to this tragedy," he said. "This has been such a woeful, woeful case and there’s been so many tears here. Don’t add to it by going along with the government’s case," pleaded attorney H. Dean Steward.
Lori Drew, 49, is charged with conspiracy and accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information for the purpose of inflicting emotional distress on Meier.
If convicted on all of the charges, she could face a maximum of 20 years in federal prison.
On Wednesday, jurors heard the testimony of Drew’s teenage daughter and Ashley Grills, who was an 18-year-old employee of Drew and sent a final message on the day of Meier’s suicide in October 2006 that read in part, "The world would be a better place without you."
Grills testified after reaching a deal with prosecutors that she not be charged with any criminal offenses.
Tina Meier, the dead girl’s mother, testified that Drew knew her daughter took medication to handle her depression. Drew herself, however, did not testify in her own defense.
A federal court in Los Angeles tried the case due to MySpace, the social networking site that was used to create the false profile of a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans, being based in the nearby city of Beverly Hills.
The social networking industry is paying particularly close attention to the trial, as Steward argued that the computer statute Drew is accused of violating was designed to stop hackers, not MySpace users.
"When you look at the facts that you’ve heard and you listen to the elements of the law it doesn’t fit," he told jurors. "And I submit to you it’s like trying to take a size 11 foot and fit it into a size 6 shoe."
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