Records Subpoenaed In MySpace Suicide?
The records surrounding 47-year-old Lori Drew’s cyberbullying of Megan Meier on MySpace, which eventually led to the young girl’s suicide, have purportedly been subpoenaed as part of an effort to determine whether Internet fraud was involved.
The LA Times reports that a grand jury has begun issuing subpoenas to establish whether Lori Drew defrauded MySpace by creating providing false information when creating the account she used to pose as “Josh”, a supposedly 13-year-old boy who first wooed then dumped Megan online.
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.
Prosecutors have declined to comment on the subpoenas which came as a surprise to Megan’s mother, Tina Meier. “We’ve been begging for someone — anyone — to pick up this case,” she told the LA Times. “If the Drews can be charged — and even get the chance to be convicted — it would be a day I could be happy with.”
Lori Drew maintains that she is neither responsible for Megan’s suicide nor the author of the message which prompted the girl to take her own life. She contends that she is, in fact, a victim of online harassment now and has been petitioning Google to shut down a blog entitled “Megan Had It Coming” which claims to be authored by Lori Drew.
Missouri officials did not file charges against Drew over the matter claiming that, although offensive, it violated no laws.
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It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I hope they can get her for something.
Lisa’s last blog post..Day In Review
I would like to see her drawn and quartered, even if only figuratively, but I get very nervous when the courts try and decide what you can and cannot say on the internet. Sort of like a male giving advice on “coping” with a pregnancy.
What happened was intolerable but finding ways to seek ‘justice’ or revenge accomplishes little in this case. In many cases like this technology is far ahead of ability of the legal system to cope with it. Concerned observers need to take a step back and look at what these acts say about the direction modern society is headed. Seek justice where laws have clearly been broken but seek the truth about what is happening not just in Missouri but Japan, Germany, and other places. There are people coaxing other people to commit suicide in several Internet forums. Why?
TH Williams’s last blog post..Suicide, Murder, and the Virtual Worlds We Live In
Jim raises an interesting point, but when Internet use results in the suicide of a freaking TEENAGER, someone’s gotta take responsibility. The entire thing’s a sad, sad commentary on our times, I think.
The fact that authorities have to work so hard to find a basis for a prosecution is just downright pathetic.
Jeff’s last blog post..We Should Have Bombed Auschwitz