I ran across something unexpected while reading the CNN headlines earlier. It seems that Lori Drew is going to get what's coming to her after all. In case you don't recall, she was the mother from that myspace suicide case a while back. The last I had heard about it, a grand jury had been issuing subpeonas, but I never anticipated that the case would amount to much. It seemed that they were simply grasping at straws. Well, it looks like the prosecutor ended up hitting paydirt.

Mom indicted in deadly MySpace hoax

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A federal grand jury indicted a Missouri woman Thursday for her alleged role in perpetrating a hoax on the online social network MySpace against a 13-year-old neighbor who committed suicide.

Lori Drew of suburban St. Louis is said to have helped create a false-identity MySpace account to contact Megan Meier, who thought she was chatting with a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans. Josh didn't exist.

Megan hanged herself at home in October 2006 after receiving cruel messages, including one stating the world would be better off without her.

Salvador Hernandez, assistant agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, called the case heart-rending.

"The Internet is a world unto itself. People must know how far they can go before they must stop. They exploited a young girl's weaknesses," Hernandez said. "Whether the defendant could have foreseen the results, she's responsible for her actions."

Drew was charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress on the girl.

Drew has denied creating the account or sending messages to Megan.

U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien said this was the first time the federal statute on accessing protected computers has been used in a social-networking case. It has been used in the past to address hacking.

"This was a tragedy that did not have to happen," O'Brien said.

Both the girl and MySpace are named as victims in the case, he said.

MySpace is a subsidiary of Beverly Hills, California-based Fox Interactive Media Inc., which is owned by News Corp. The indictment noted that MySpace computer servers are located in Los Angeles County.

Due to juvenile privacy rules, the U.S. attorney's office said, the indictment refers to the girl as M.T.M.

FBI agents in St. Louis and Los Angeles investigated the case, Hernandez said.

Each of the four counts carries a maximum possible penalty of five years in prison.

Drew will be arraigned in St. Louis and then moved to Los Angeles for trial.

I don't really know how I feel about this case anymore. I agree that the mom was a douche and should have faced scorn but I just don't know if I believe there should be criminal charges. It's not exactly her fault that the girl was an unbalanced nutjob exactly. It'd be different if she had handed her the rope but I'm not sure it's exactly foreseeable that she would off herself.

The other aspect of this case that bothers me is the new information that's come out since that shows that it was Drew's 19 year old employee who actually created the account and also issued the fateful 'the world would be better off without you' message that is believed to have precipitated the suicide. I'm sure she was acting, at least to some degree, at Lori Drew's behest, but there's no reason she should have escaped being charged as well. With that information out there and the lack of other indictments, it just makes this look like a witch hunt. I'm also not sure that it bodes well to have this case as a precedent either.

Police: Teen Killed Dad For Banning MySpace

MESA, Ariz. -- A teenager who confessed to killing his father last month told police he hated his dad for taking away his Internet access, according to a police report released Wednesday.

Hughstan Schlicker, 15, called 911 on Feb. 6 and told the dispatcher he had just shot his father in the head with a 12-gauge shotgun.

"I hate my dad, couldn't take it anymore," he said, according to the report.

Schlicker told police his father had taken away his Internet access after seeing suicide threats the teen had posted on social networking Web site MySpace.com.

Schlicker had posted the threats in January; friends in Florida had seen the postings, talked him out of killing himself and called Mesa police. Police said they told Schlicker's mother about the threats; she allegedly told them she wasn't worried and promised to lock up any guns in the house.

Schlicker said he often spent entire days on MySpace and couldn't cope when his father cut off his access to the site.

...

After the shooting, Schlicker said, he called a female friend and told her he had killed his father and was about to kill himself. Schlicker said she talked him out of it and convinced him to call police instead.

Schlicker expressed remorse during a police interview, telling detectives "I wish I didn’t do this," and "I miss Dad."

During the interview, Schlicker portrayed his father as a loving man who only wanted the best for him and who used to take him on hunting trips.

"Me and my dad would go squirrel hunting," Schlicker said, according to the interview transcript. "Apparently he trusts me with a rifle."

Schlicker was charged with first-degree murder and will be tried as an adult.

This just reinforces my idea that abortion should only be legal if you're aborting teenagers. If you're going to murder your parents, at least do it for a good reason. I'm not sure that MySpace withdrawal is a good enough justification for jaywalking or loitering, much less premeditated murder. Hey, at least that crazy whore that killed her family got to have post-massmurder sex afterwards. All this dingus got was a chat on the phone.

I was looking through the daily news today and got a flash from the past. I'm sure most of you will remember that whole incident a while back where the teenager in Missouri killed herself due to an altercation with a false myspace account created by a friend's mother. I'm sure Lori Drew thought she was scott free after both local, state, and federal authorities declined to prosecute her. They claimed that there was no law or statute in place under which she could be prosecuted. Apparently the citizens of Los Angeles were a little more resourceful.

L.A. grand jury issues subpoenas in Web suicide case

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles has begun issuing subpoenas in the case of a Missouri teenager who hanged herself after being rejected by the person she thought was a 16-year-old boy she met on MySpace, sources told The Times.

The case set off a national furor when it was revealed that the "boyfriend" was really a neighbor who was the mother of one of the girl's former friends.

Local and federal authorities in Missouri looked into the circumstances surrounding 13-year-old Megan Meier's 2006 death in the town of Dardenne Prairie, an upper-middle-class enclave of about 7,400 people, located northwest of St. Louis.

But after months of investigation, no charges were filed against Lori Drew for her alleged role in the hoax. Prosecutors in Missouri said they were unable to find a statute under which to pursue a criminal case.

Prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, however, are exploring the possibility of charging Drew with defrauding the MySpace social networking website by allegedly creating the false account, according to the sources, who insisted on anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

The sources said prosecutors are looking at federal wire fraud and cyber fraud statutes as they consider the case. Prosecutors believe they have jurisdiction because MySpace is headquartered in Beverly Hills, the sources said.

...

The news came as a shock to Tina and Ron Meier, Megan's parents. Both said they were unaware of the grand jury and had not been contacted by the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles.

"If MySpace is considered the victim, fine. I don't care at this point," said Tina Meier, 37. "We've been begging for someone -- anyone -- to pick up this case. If the Drews can be charged -- and even get the chance to be convicted -- it would be a day I could be happy with."

The article goes on to solicit opinions from a variety of lawyers, prosecutors, and professors.

No matter what you think about whether the charges hold water, you have to admire just how far they were willing to go to find something to charge the woman with. The irony is that I'll wager Myspace dosen't want to be the 'victim' in this case. The last thing it wants is anything that might shrink its userbase. Telling people that by creating an account with false information they could be subject to fraud charges can't be a positive for their buisness model. I can't exactly applaud the government over-reach, but at least it holds the possibility that bitch will get what's coming to her.

One of the funny new gimmicks we always see with news nowadays is that whenever something goes wrong, it won't be long before someone pops up a screen capture of a myspace page to add color to the story. This usually goes with things like school shootings but has lately expanded out to just about any story of interest. There was that recent heist where a couple of Wiccan morons decided to steal 7.4 million dollars but the moron girlfriend left tracable receipts in the abandoned getaway car. Almost immediately we had quotes and pictures from their myspace pages plastered about like it was Bonnie and Clyde.

Well, the recent Jamie Lynn Spears pregnancy fiasco has also had a myspace moment. A few people snagged shots of what was supposedly the father's myspace page and it was picked up by the media. In it, he claims that they were splitsvile, an assertion that is now going through multiple permutations of he said, she said. Of course, since she claims she had no boyfriend at the time she got knocked up, it should be a fun game of ennie meenie penis to find the sperm donor responsible.

It also turns out that maybe this pregnancy might not be motivated by stupidity as much as greed. The announcement has only just gone around with the mom still feigning shock when we all find out that there's already a deal in place to cash in.

Jamie Lynn Spears has reportedly signed a $1 million magazine deal for exclusive pictures of her newborn baby.

The 16-year-old younger sister of singer Britney, who is expecting her first child with her boyfriend Casey Aldridge, has agreed to pose with the baby in a photo shoot for America's OK! magazine.

What a monumentally fucked up family.

It was inevitable, but I was sort of worried that I wouldn't be able to find it admist the the tsunami going the other way. A new blog was started over on blogger with only a single entry, purportedly written by someone who went ot the same school as Megan Meier and Sarah Drew. There's no way to confirm the authenticity of the info at the moment and even without going to the site, the blog's title should give you an idea of where it stands.

Megan Had It Coming

I want to set the record straight about Megan Meier. I'm calling myself Kristen because if i don't want to give out my real name.

Megan and I were sort of friends. I always saw her at school and sometimes on myspace when her mom would let her on. I need to talk about what she was like because everyone has this picture of this innocent girl who had this horrible thing done to her. That's sorta true but not totally.

Megan was a total drama queen. Yeah i know it was depression or whatev but it was hard to be her friend for very long because she would always lose it and turn into a psycho. That's why Lori Drew's daughter stopped being friends with Megan. Let's call her laura. Every other day Megan would have some crisis and you could see her freaking out down the hall or screaming at someone for stabbing her in the back or not listening to her or whatever then she would go cry to Laura unless it was her pissing her off. You couldn't say anything to megan without her taking it the wrong way.

Yeah she was kinda fat. But she made it seem like everyone was out to harpoon her or whatev. I saw her out with her mom one day at tri sports and she was being a total basket case complaining how all the sports gear made her look fat. You could tell that her mom had been putting up with her daughter for a looooooong time and kinda tuned her out. I would, too.

Oh one other thing about Megan is that she was soooooo shallow. She totally threw herself at any boy who would give her the time of day and then totally lose him for stupid reasons. She was hot for this one boy in our math class and she was trying to be a flirt but she was being totally slutty at him until sara this other girl she talked to said she didn't think he was very hot and boom! suddenly megan wasn't intrested in him anymore and called him a loser in front of everyone. It was that kind of stuff that made people not like Megan. Megan could be really mean and hurtful.

Oh and if you ever disagreed with her or didn't go in with whatever she was talking about she totally pulled this poor me thing and got all defensive. she was a total psycho and everyone knew it. And she knew that everyone knew it and she went even more crazy! Like when she talked about liking Usher and someone else called her a getto bitch and she screamed at the top of her lungs NO IM NOT!!!!! You couldn't help but laugh at her because she was soooooo nuts!!!

So yeah it's to bad Megan killed herself but it's not suprising. I mean if she didn't have enough to eat at dinner that could have set her off and made her kill herself. And killing yourself over a myspace boy? come on!!! I mean yeah your fat so you have to take what you can get but still nobody should kill themselves over it. Oh wait unless your Megan the psycho who goes crazy over every little thing and acts like it's the end of the world. Think about it Megan was "drove" to suicide because from her perspective a boy she liked suddenly asked her about her school reputation and said he wasn't into it? How crazy do you have to be?

Oh and I don't think Lori Drew is so evil as everyone says. Megan was a total bitch to everyone around her especially Laura so if I was her mom I would be mad at Megan too and I would check up on her to see what shit she was spreading about my daughter. And Megan totally talked shit about everyone, including Laura. After she told Laura off, she went around to all her friends to get everyone on her side as if it was this huge divorce or somethingcalling Laura a slut and a bitch so whatev. So yeah Laura's mom checked up on Megan to see what was up and give her a taste of her own medicine. And it's not like Laura's mom did this whole campaign like you see on the news. She was pretending to be this nice guy for six weeks and then said two mean things in one day and that was it. It's not like Megan thought some mean adult was coming after her. All she knew was that some boy who would totally make her think she's hot shit at school cuz she couldn't shut up about him she totally showed him off like a trophy so all the other girls would be jealous and then oops her awesome boy toy was fake!! She was like totally busted on that one. And she had it coming with all the shit she did.

So nobody in the news talks about what Megan the bitch was like so now you know. Oh and don't bother trying to figure out who I am. Unlike Megan, I DO have a boyfriend and he knows computers and he totally covered my tracks.

So does it make a difference? Lets assume that everything stated above was the absolute truth and she was screwed up, unstable, and at least somewhat abusive. Does it make a difference? I imagine for the wide range of people it wouldn't matter at all. I'm not even sure discovering that Megan Meier liked to boil hamsters in her backyard would really make an impact on the whole situation. For most people, there was clearly some line crossed, though what the previous poll seems to indicate is that everyone thinks that it's a different line that was most important.

It's clear that this one is going to go the full twelve rounds in the courts of public opinion. Frankly, the winner already seems pretty clear at this point and I'm just interested in seeing if there are any counterpunches that actually hold weight. All in all, it'll be like spitting into the tsunami and perhaps for good reason. Lori Drew dug her own grave with her own words and there are plenty of people there who would happily help her to lie in it.

Welp, it looks like the police report about that myspace suicide is now avaliable, though in a roundabout fashion. CNN unwittingly provided the info in their video piece about the story. Apparently those morons there never considered the fact that someone could just hit pause on the video, take a snapshot and then read the documents.



All of this is courtesy of Blue Merle who did the legwork.

Here's her transcript of what you can make out in the picture if you squint a little:

In reference to their daughter's suicide, Drew explaind she wanted to "just tell them" what she did to contribute to the Meier's daughter's suicide. She instigated and monitored a "my space" account(<---blurred) which was created for the sole purpose of communicating with Meier's daughter. Drew said she, with the help of temporary empoyee named "Ashley", constructed a profile of "good looking" male on "my space" in order to "find out what Megan (Meier's daughter) was saying on-line" about her daughter. Drew explained the communication between the fake male profile was [?aimed? illeg] at gaining Megan's confidence and finding out what Megan felt about her daughter and other people. Drew stated she, her daughter, and Ashley all typed, read, and monitored the communication between the fake male profile and Megan. Drew went on to say, the communication became "sexual for a thirteen year old." Drew stated she continued the fake male profile despite this development.

According to Drew "somehow" other "my space" users were able to access the fake male profile and Megan found out she had been duped. Drew stated she knew "arguments" had broken out between Megan and others on "my space". Drew felt this incident contributed to Megan's suicide, but she did not feel "as guilty" because at the funeral because she found out "Megan had tried to commit suicide before."

Drew explained the neighborhood had recently found out her involvement in Megan's suicide and her neighbord have become hostile to toward her and her family. Despite the recency of the suicide and several neighbors recommending she not confront the Meier family (especially on Thanksgiving), Meier stated she and her husband attempted to contact the Meier family three times, "banging on the door" although Mr Meier had already told them to leave.

Man. This woman is going to get her fucking head kicked in. I'm surprised there isn't a lynch mob outside her door at this very minute with torches and nooses non-racially offensive yet threatening paraphenalia.

The whole 'sexual' allusion is just repulsive and God only knows what that actually entailed. This woman is a real piece of work. I'm surprised the girl's dad didn't just respond to their banging on the door with a shotgun blast. If it were Texas, it'd likely be legal to boot. I absolutely love those castle laws. Every state should have them. It sorta figures that Jersey would be without one. Fucking hippie wankers in the state legislature.

Overall, I'm still a bit amivalent about this case and I'll tell you why. Reading about it, it's hard not to feel incredibly horrified and feel that Lori Drew is fucking scum. I'm just not sure what exactly is the facet which makes it so clear. I've told many people online to 'choke on a cock and die' or the equivalent over the years. If one of those soft-brained rejects had then gone and hanged themselves would I be culpable legally or morally for their death? If not, then what makes my suggestion that someone go fornicate themselves and expire less problematic than what Lori Drew did in this case.

Hmmm. Lets answer this with a poll. Let the Wheel of Morality turn, turn, turn. Tell us the lesson that we should learn.



Poll #1090624
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

What was the one or most major reason for Lori Drew being culpable for the death of Megan Meier?

If 'Other', please elaborate here

On a sidenote, for every movement, there's always a counter-movement.

Mom: Web Hoax Led Girl to Kill Herself

DARDENNE PRAIRIE, Mo. (AP) — Megan Meier thought she had made a new friend in cyberspace when a cute teenage boy named Josh contacted her on MySpace and began exchanging messages with her.

Megan, a 13-year-old who suffered from depression and attention deficit disorder, corresponded with Josh for more than a month before he abruptly ended their friendship, telling her he had heard she was cruel.

The next day Megan committed suicide. Her family learned later that Josh never actually existed; he was created by members of a neighborhood family that included a former friend of Megan's.

Now Megan's parents hope the people who made the fraudulent profile on the social networking Web site will be prosecuted, and they are seeking legal changes to safeguard children on the Internet.

The girl's mother, Tina Meier, said she doesn't think anyone involved intended for her daughter to kill herself.

"But when adults are involved and continue to screw with a 13-year-old, with or without mental problems, it is absolutely vile," she told the Suburban Journals of Greater St. Louis, which first reported on the case.

Tina Meier said law enforcement officials told her the case did not fit into any law. But sheriff's officials have not closed the case and pledged to consider new evidence if it emerges.

Megan Meier hanged herself in her bedroom on Oct. 16, 2006, and died the next day. She was described as a "bubbly, goofy" girl who loved spending time with her friends, watching movies and fishing with her dad.

Megan had been on medication, but had been upbeat before her death, her mother said, after striking up a relationship on MySpace with Josh Evans about six weeks before her death.

Josh told her he was born in Florida and had recently moved to the nearby community of O'Fallon. He said he was homeschooled, and didn't yet have a phone number in the area to give her.

Megan's parents said she received a message from him on Oct. 15 of last year, essentially saying he didn't want to be her friend anymore, that he had heard she wasn't nice to her friends.

The next day, as Megan's mother headed out the door to take another daughter to the orthodontist, she knew Megan was upset about Internet messages. She asked Megan to log off. Users on MySpace must be at least 14, though Megan was not when she opened her account. A MySpace spokeswoman did not return calls seeking comment.

Someone using Josh's account was sending cruel messages. Then, Megan called her mother, saying electronic bulletins were being posted about her, saying things like, "Megan Meier is a slut. Megan Meier is fat."

Megan's mother, who monitored her daughter's online communications, returned home and said she was shocked at the vulgar language her own daughter was sending. She told her daughter how upset she was about it.

Megan ran upstairs, and her father, Ron, tried to tell her everything would be fine. About 20 minutes later, she was found in her bedroom. She died the next day.

Her father said he found a message the next day from Josh, which he said law enforcement authorities have not been able to retrieve. It told the girl she was a bad person and the world would be better without her, he has said.

Another parent, who learned of the MySpace account from her own daughter who had access to the Josh profile, told Megan's parents about the hoax in a counselor's office about six weeks after Megan died. That's when they learned Josh was imaginary, they said.

The woman who created the fake profile has not been charged with a crime. She allegedly told the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department she created Josh's profile because she wanted to gain Megan's confidence to know what Megan was saying about her own child online.

The mother from down the street told police that she, her daughter and another person all typed and monitored the communication between the fictitious boy and Megan.

A person who answered the door at the family's house told an Associated Press reporter on Friday afternoon that they had been advised not to comment.

Megan's parents had been storing a foosball table for the family that created the MySpace character. Six weeks after Megan's death, they learned the other family had created the profile and responded by destroying the foosball table, dumping it on the neighbors' driveway and encouraging them to move away.

Megan's parents are now separated and plan to divorce.

Aldermen in Dardenne Prairie, a community of about 7,000 residents about 35 miles from St. Louis, have proposed a new ordinance related to child endangerment and Internet harassment. It could come before city leaders on Wednesday.

"Is this enough?" Mayor Pam Fogarty said Friday. "No, not by any stretch of the imagination, but it's something, and you have to start somewhere."

I was watching the CNN video about this story earlier this morning and I predict firestorm. I haven't checked back on it but I would be surprised if there aren't people out there foaming at the mouth over this incident. Personally, I can see it on a couple levels. First, there really is notta criminal you can charge that other mom with. It'd be different if she were trying to solicit sex or engaging in harassment, but pretending to be a teenage boy to chat up a teenage girl only to then tell her she's a loser dosen't break any laws. You might be able to push something through if one of the messages had at least encouraged her to kill herself or was incredibly abusive. All in all, telling someone you think they suck and should have a horrible life just dosen't cut it. I guess it could be stalking or harassment, but usually you have to tell the person to stop or make some attempt to sever contact which persists for that to stick. Oh well, if all else fails, there's always the civil trial for intentional infliction of emotional distress and whatnot.

All that being said, there is something incredibly derranged about an adult going on myspace and making up an identity so she can find out if a girl is talking smack about her daughter. WTF? It sort of reminds me of that texas cheerleading mom who hired a hitman and tried to whack her daughter's rival's mom. There's being involved in your kid's life and then there's psycho. It's not exactly a thin line, people.

Updated:

Well, it looks like I was right and then some. I just did a blogsearch and half the net is humming like a hive of angry bees over this. It seems to have gone beyond basic outrage and really touched a nerve.

When this initial story broke, the reporter decided to grant anonymity to the family responsible for the fake page and not print their identity. This led to a shitstorm and people people doing their own research. The internet being what it is, the mystery was soon uncovered and now bloggers are posting the names and address of the people responsible. In case you don't want to scroll through all those comments and you are curious, their info is:

CURT and LORI DREW
Address:
269 Waterford Crystal Drive
St Charles, MO 63385

Telephone #
636-272-2670

Let the games begin.