MySpace case goes to Los Angeles federal jury
Judge in the widely watched cyber-bullying case revolving around a teen's suicide could still decide to throw it out, even after jurors reach a verdict.
A closely watched cyber-bullying case in which a Missouri woman is accused of creating a fake MySpace account and using it to torment a teenage girl who later killed herself was turned over to a federal jury in Los Angeles on Monday.
The case centers on events leading up to the death of 13-year-old Megan Meier. An eighth-grader in suburban St. Louis, Meier hanged herself with a belt in her bedroom closet two years ago after she was suddenly dumped by someone she believed was a 16-year-old boy she'd met on the MySpace website. But the boy, Josh Evans, didn't exist.
"Folks, that's Josh Evans right there," U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien told jurors, pointing to the defendant, 49-year-old Lori Drew, moments before the jury was given the case.
Drew showed no emotion as she returned the gaze of the six men and six women who will consider her fate.
During a five-day trial in front of U.S. District Judge George H. Wu, prosecutors sought to portray Drew as a callous and reckless woman who gleefully took part in the hoax on Meier, despite knowing the girl had struggled with depression for years and had a vulnerable psyche. Among the government's witnesses were a close friend of Drew's, a business associate and her hairdresser, each of whom testified that Drew had admitted playing a role in the hoax.
Drew's attorney, H. Dean Steward, accused O'Brien and his colleagues in the U.S. attorney's office of engaging in a misguided prosecution that was meant to exact revenge for the tragic death of a pretty young girl, even though Drew is not charged with her killing.
"You'd think this was a homicide case, but it's not," Steward told jurors during his closing arguments.
He insisted his client is not guilty of the charges the government did file -- in essence, intentionally violating the rules governing the use of computers on MySpace and then using a computer to intentionally inflict emotional distress.
When the government rested its case Friday afternoon, Steward asked to have the charges thrown out, arguing that Drew could not have intentionally violated MySpace rules because there was no evidence she'd ever read them. Judge Wu, after considering the matter over the weekend, said Monday morning that it was "a complicated legal issue" that he had not yet resolved.
He allowed the trial to proceed, but said he would take the motion to dismiss under submission, meaning he could decide to throw out the case even if the jury reached a verdict.
