Missouri Woman Indicted in MySpace Cyber-Bullying Case That Ended in Teen's Suicide

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,356056,00.html

Missouri Woman Indicted in MySpace Cyber-Bullying Case That Ended in Teen's Suicide
Thursday , May 15, 2008

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted a Missouri woman Thursday for her alleged role in a MySpace hoax on a teen neighbor who committed suicide after being spurned by the "boy" in the fake profile.

Lori Drew, of Dardenne Prairie near St. Louis, was charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress on the girl.

Drew allegedly 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."

Megan, 13, hanged herself at home in October 2006 after receiving cruel messages, including one stating the world would be better off without her.

Drew's attorney, Jim Briscoe, did not return FOXNews.com's requests for comment about the indictment.

Click here to read the indictment. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0515083drew1.html

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

U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien said the federal statute on accessing protected computers has been used before to address Internet hacking, but this was the first time it has been used in a social-networking situation.

"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, a social networking site, is owned by Beverly Hills-based Fox Interactive Media Inc. The indictment noted that computer servers are located in Los Angeles County.

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

FBI agents in St. Louis and Los Angeles investigated the case, said Salvador Hernandez, assistant agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office. He 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," he said.

The conspiracy count carries a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison. Each count of accessing protected computers carries a maximum possible penalty of five years in prison. In all, Drew could face up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted.

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

The indictment said MySpace members agree to abide by terms of service that include, among other things, not promoting information they know to be false or misleading; soliciting personal information from anyone under age 18 and not using information gathered from the Web site to "harass, abuse or harm other people."

The indictment charged that Drew and others, who were not named, conspired to violate the service terms from about September 2006 to mid-October of that year.

They registered as a MySpace member under a phony name and used the MySpace account to obtain information on the girl, the grand jury alleged.

Drew and her co-conspirators "used the information obtained over the MySpace computer system to torment, harass, humiliate, and embarrass the juvenile MySpace member," the indictment charged.

After the girl killed herself, Drew and the others deleted the information for the account opened under the phony name, the indictment said.

Last month, 19-year-old Ashley Grills, an employee of Drew, told ABC's "Good Morning America" she created the false MySpace profile, but said Drew wrote some of the messages to Megan.

Grills also claimed Drew suggested talking to Megan via the Internet to find out what Megan was saying about her daughter, who was a former friend.

Grills also said she wrote the message to Megan about the world being a better place without her. The message was supposed to end the online relationship with "Josh" because Grills felt the joke had gone too far.

"I was trying to get her angry so she would leave him alone and I could get rid of the whole MySpace," Grills told the morning show.

Megan's death was investigated by Missouri authorities, but no state charges were filed because no laws appeared to apply to the case.

Click here for more on this story from MyFOXStLouis.com. http://www.myfoxstl.com/myfox/pages...n=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1

The Associated Press contributed to this report. MySpace is a subsidiary of News Corp., the parent company of FOXNews.com.

Good, that lady is a pyscho. Her 13 yr old didnt care what her ex-friend was saying about her, but her mother was. She wouldnt want me on that jury.

This has got to be one of the most tragic stories I've heard in the last few months. It's amazing how childish adults can be.

childish? to me childish implies playful, child-like

This was a cold hearted cruel bitch.

Good.

Great!! Absolutely fabulous!!!

Turn the family's lives upside down and inside out!! I hope that their finances are drained and they end up living on the streets. The Mother is scum and deserves to be stood in front of a firing squad.

OK, I feel a little better getting that off my chest.

outstanding! this woman has never shown any remorse...hopefully the threat of prison will shake some of the ice off her heart.

20 years for ToS violation?

If you look at the indictment:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0515083drew1.html

for all intents and purposes she's facing 20 years in prison for doing nothing more than violating the Myspace Terms of Service. As tragic as this case was, I don't want my government throwing people in prison for violating the terms of service of a website, which as you know, are often absurd for some commercial sites.

Just my opinion.

ElBenevolente said:

If you look at the indictment:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0515083drew1.html

for all intents and purposes she's facing 20 years in prison for doing nothing more than violating the Myspace Terms of Service. As tragic as this case was, I don't want my government throwing people in prison for violating the terms of service of a website, which as you know, are often absurd for some commercial sites.

Just my opinion.

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You're kidding right? She directly lead to the death of this girl. She knew the girl had problems and she preyed on it.

No more so then any serial killer would pray on the weakness of their victim. She stalked her and then repeatedly used the information to berate, belittle and shame this girl to the point that she had no choice in her mind other then to kill herself.

I hope the woman gets 20 years.

FDLS gets their children taken away for their choice in religion, but his Darwin gets to keep hers because she is such a model citizen.

Gee! Where is the ACLU when you need them? I would have thought they would have been all over this as a 1st Amendment issue. I mean...if you can't tell lies, what's left of Freedom of Speech?

And the fact that your lies get somebody killed? Well, if you are going to make an omlette, one does need to break an occasional egg.

ElBenevolente said:

If you look at the indictment:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0515083drew1.html

for all intents and purposes she's facing 20 years in prison for doing nothing more than violating the Myspace Terms of Service. As tragic as this case was, I don't want my government throwing people in prison for violating the terms of service of a website, which as you know, are often absurd for some commercial sites.

Just my opinion.

Click to expand...

I think it is like Al Capone getting nailed on tax evasion. The laws have not kept up with technology, so they had to go after this &itch with whatever they had. I think she needs to be hung, she WAS responsible for this young girls death, and deserves to pay.

The woman ought to be glad she doesn't get the treatment some bullies have received in certain towns. One incident that springs to mind is the man that was killed in his car on a main street in town in broad daylight and somehow not one single town resident saw a single thing.

She's a vicious, evil, cruel-hearted bitch.

IIRC, when this story first broke it seemed that about 75% of the opinions were that the wicked people (and this was wickedness, the doing of evil willingly and with malicious intent) should face some semblance of consequence for their culpability in her death. The other 25% were of the mindset that the victim should have had the sense to log off and/or shouldn't have allowed herself to get so involved that she would be dragged under by some idiots posting on a Myspace page.

Personally I am of a mindset that if you directly contribute to someone's death by delibrate, willful, and malicious acts on your part, you should be held responsible to at least some degree no matter what else was involved in the case. The wicked people in this case knew precisely what they were doing and should accordingly bear some punishment. IMO, they indirectly committed murder.


Also IIRC, the mom complained that she was already being ostracized in the town over the situation. I find it difficult to be sympathetic...

oO

Good for the FBI and MySpace for finding the 'loophole' that allowed her prosecution!

bethshaya said:

You're kidding right? She directly lead to the death of this girl. She knew the girl had problems and she preyed on it.

No more so then any serial killer would pray on the weakness of their victim. She stalked her and then repeatedly used the information to berate, belittle and shame this girl to the point that she had no choice in her mind other then to kill herself.

I hope the woman gets 20 years.

FDLS gets their children taken away for their choice in religion, but his Darwin gets to keep hers because she is such a model citizen.

Click to expand...

That isn't the crime here. Her crime is violating the terms of service of Myspace, under the indictment. If she is found guilty and the verdict is upheld, it would set the precedent that deviating from the terms of service of any public website could be prosecuted as a federal crime, subject to five years per infraction.

Justice needs to be done in this case, but this isn't the way to do it.

ElB - either you are being deliberately obtuse, or you need your meds adjusted. Your position is the same as if someone CALLED a person on the phone, and that call (for whatever reason) caused the person to jump out a 10th floor window, and then the caller should only be prosecuted for making a prank phone call.

Absolutely freakin' clueless....

Her CRIME is psychological ABUSE OF A CHILD.

She deliberately lured a minor into contact with her with the intent of causing serious emotional and psychological harm.

CPS takes kids away from homes (and rightly so, in that case) because it counts as CHILD ABUSE.

The tool that she chose to use (the Internet) rather than doing it in person is irrelevant. She had a deliberate intent to cause harm to a minor.

Unfortunately, like most abusers, she succeeded.

Adults are supposed to protect children; she chose to hurt one. She belongs in a cell right next to the molesters and beaters.

This is the bitch!!!

Dixielee said:

I think it is like Al Capone getting nailed on tax evasion. The laws have not kept up with technology, so they had to go after this &itch with whatever they had. I think she needs to be hung, she WAS responsible for this young girls death, and deserves to pay.

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Wow, thought of the same example, when I read the same reply.

Energy wave, I don't know why the image didn't render in your post. Allow me...

ElBenevolente said:

If you look at the indictment:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0515083drew1.html

for all intents and purposes she's facing 20 years in prison for doing nothing more than violating the Myspace Terms of Service. As tragic as this case was, I don't want my government throwing people in prison for violating the terms of service of a website, which as you know, are often absurd for some commercial sites.

Click to expand...

ElBenevolente said:

That isn't the crime here. Her crime is violating the terms of service of Myspace, under the indictment. If she is found guilty and the verdict is upheld, it would set the precedent that deviating from the terms of service of any public website could be prosecuted as a federal crime, subject to five years per infraction.

Justice needs to be done in this case, but this isn't the way to do it.

Click to expand...

I have to agree with ElBenevolente here. This woman is evil and there should be some sort of legal punishment that they can bring against her - but using this statute in Federal Court is definitely NOT the way to do it.

The way federal law works is on precedent. If the court allows the federal government to prosecute citizens for violating TOS agreements on webpages they visit - which should be a private violation of contract action - then you've basically opened the floodgate and given the federal gov't carte blanche to go in and monitor private web pages. BAD IDEA. REALLY REALLY bad idea. And the best way to get a bad precedent like that set in federal court is to try it using the most emotionally gutwrenching situation, when you know the public will be behind you due to the facts of the case and not the legal basis of it - when they are not realizing exactly what they are losing.

I'd rather see this evil bitch walk free than see a law like this used to jail her. And so should all of you imho.

Usually Curious said:

Good for the FBI and MySpace for finding the 'loophole' that allowed her prosecution!

Click to expand...

No - BAD for the FBI and My Space for finding this loophole because if they're allowed to use it against her (even though it is for something as heinous as causing someone's death), they will then be able to use against anyone posting on someone else's server (ie: any newsgroup, like TB even) if it violates the TOS agreement of that hosting server.

Dixielee said:

I think it is like Al Capone getting nailed on tax evasion. The laws have not kept up with technology, so they had to go after this &itch with whatever they had. I think she needs to be hung, she WAS responsible for this young girls death, and deserves to pay.

Click to expand...

Except in this case, unlike tax evasion, it's not against the law to post on a webpage and up until now it has not been AGAINST THE LAW to violate a TOS agreement. Is that the precedent you all want set?

Read that again two or three times until it sinks in.

For those who can't access the indictment on the smoking gun, you can access it as a pdf here: http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/05/15/my.space.drew.indictment.pdf

I suggest you read through it and familiarize yourself with how they are going after this woman before you just fall in line with a knee jerk emotional reaction.

And here's someone who says it better than I can:
excerpt from: http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/05/15...n-indictment-but-will-it-hold-up/?mod=WSJBlog
emphasis mine

Here, the theory of the case seems to be that when Drew registered on MySpace she agreed to certain terms of service that required her to, among other things, provide “truthful and accurate registration information” and “refrain from promoting information that” she knew was “false or misleading.” For violating the terms of service, the feds have charged her with conspiracy to access MySpace without authorization. (my comment: the reason they are saying she had 'no authorization' is because she violated the rules (ie: TOS agreement) of MySpace, therefore since she wasn't following all the rules, it was 'unauthorized')

“A very sympathetic set of facts,” concedes Orin Kerr, a cyberlaw prof at George Washington. “But highly dubious; a weak legal argument.” Kerr, who says he’s considering making an offer to represent Drew, told the Law Blog that there are two problems with the legal theory. First, the statute requires a conspiracy to intentionally access the site without authorization, and there’s no evidence that Drew read or knew the terms of service. Second, it needs to be a conspiracy to obtain information, and this was not. “It was a conspiracy to harass,” said Kerr, “but that’s not what the statute is about.”

He added: “It’s a dangerous theory because terms of service are violated so often, and that means there’s a choice courts must face: maybe any violation of any terms of service is a federal crime; maybe no violations are a crime; or maybe some violations are a crime. If a court allows it, then it means that if the government is looking for a criminal charge against someone, they just need to show someone violated a term of service. Do I expect the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to allow it? No.”

Click to expand...

HD

Dennis Olson said:

ElB - either you are being deliberately obtuse, or you need your meds adjusted.

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Is this "adult civility" Dennis?

This suit would set a very dangerous precedent. To cite another source:

Yet, legal experts argue that charging a person for violating computer-crime statutes because they broke the terms-of-service agreement of an online site could lead to the ability to charge nearly anyone with computer crime. Using residential broadband for business purposes? A violation of the terms of service and, thus, potentially a crime. Checking sports sites while at work? A violation of corporate policy and, thus, potentially a crime.

"'Hard cases make bad law' is an axiom in the legal world," said Mark Rasch, managing director of enterprise-services firm FTI Consulting and a former U.S. prosecutor. "This is a case where people have seen bad conduct and have said there must be something we can do, but if prosecution of this case is successful, every pseudonym and every minor violation of the terms of service becomes a computer crime."


http://www.securityfocus.com/news/11519

The woman set out to DELIBERATELY DAMAGE THIS GIRL EMOTIONALLY, AND IT RESULTED IN HER DEATH. She was as guilty of killing the girl as id she held a gun to her head and pulled the trigger. What person in their right mind would want to see her go unpunished?

Dennis Olson said:

The woman set out to DELIBERATELY DAMAGE THIS GIRL EMOTIONALLY, AND IT RESULTED IN HER DEATH. She was as guilty of killing the girl as id she held a gun to her head and pulled the trigger. What person in their right mind would want to see her go unpunished?

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I agree entirely that she needs to be punished. But this is absolutely not the way to do so for the reasons explained above.

There are no laws in place right now that cover what she did. I agree that the law being used is inappropriate for her. But the alternative is to let her off. And she then gets away (literally) with murder.

ElBenevolente and Heliobas Disciple are right.

Dennis Olson said:

There are no laws in place right now that cover what she did. I agree that the law being used is inappropriate for her. But the alternative is to let her off. And she then gets away (literally) with murder.

Click to expand...

This is how new laws are made. You don't put someone in jail for 20 years for violating a Terms of Service agreement, period. No one can deny her actions were reprehensible, but this charge sets a dangerous precedent.

Why do the people who rail the hardest against an out of control government cheer the loudest over something like this?

Everyone cheering this indictment should pay close attention to the following story.

==============================================
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2008-05-17-myspace-ruling-routine_N.htm

Routine Web conduct at risk due to MySpace suicide case

NEW YORK — Think twice before you sign up for an online service using a fake name or e-mail address. You could be committing a federal crime.

Federal prosecutors turned to a novel interpretation of computer hacking law to indict a Missouri mother on charges connected to the suicide of a 13-year-old MySpace user.

Prosecutors alleged that by helping create a MySpace account in the name of someone who didn't exist, Lori Drew, 49, violated the News Corp.-owned site's terms of service and thus illegally accessed protected computers.

Legal experts warned Friday that such an interpretation could criminalize routine behavior on the Internet. After all, people regularly create accounts or post information under aliases for many legitimate reasons, including parody, spam avoidance and a desire to maintain their anonymity or privacy online or that of a child.

This new interpretation also gives a business contract the force of a law: Violations of a website's user agreement could now lead to criminal sanction, not just civil lawsuits or ejection from a site.

"I think the danger of applying a statute in this way is that it could have unintended consequences," said John Palfrey, a Harvard law professor who leads a MySpace-convened task force on Internet safety. "An application of a general statute like this might result in chilling a great deal of online speech and other freedom."

Drew, of O'Fallon, Mo., was indicted Thursday on charges of perpetrating a hoax on the popular online hangout MySpace. Prosecutors say Drew helped create a fake MySpace account to convince Megan Meier she was chatting with a nonexistent 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans. Megan hanged herself at home in October 2006, allegedly after receiving a dozen or more cruel messages, including one stating the world would be better off without her.

Drew, who has denied creating the account or sending messages to Megan, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles on one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress on the girl.

Prosecutors argue that to access MySpace's servers, Drew first had to sign up for the service, which meant providing her name and date of birth and agreeing to abide by the site's terms of service. Those terms bar false registration information, solicitation of personal information from anyone under 18 and use of any information gathered from the website to "harass, abuse, or harm another person."

By using a fictitious name, among other things, Drew violated MySpace's terms and thus had no authority to access the MySpace service, prosecutors charged.

"Clearly the facts surrounding this matter are awful and very upsetting, and I certainly understand the instinct of wanting justice to be served," Palfrey said. "On the other hand, this complaint is certainly unusual."

Drew's lawyer, Dean Steward, said Thursday a legal challenge to the charges is planned. Missouri authorities said they investigated Megan's death but filed no charges because no state laws appeared to apply to the case.

Andrew DeVore, a former federal prosecutor who co-founded a regional computer crime unit in New York, said Friday the interpretation raises constitutional issues related to speech and due process — in the latter case, because it doesn't allow for adequate notice of when using an alias online is criminal.

Because corporations would end up setting criminal standards, a completely legal act at one site could be illegal at another, said DeVore, who has no direct involvement in the case.

"What clearly is going on is they couldn't find a way to charge it under traditional criminal law statutes," DeVore said. "The conduct that she engaged in they correctly concluded wouldn't satisfy the statute. Clearly they were looking for some other way to bring a charge."