Jurors Clear Lori Drew of Felonies in Landmark Cyberbullying Trial

Internet Law

Jurors Clear Lori Drew of Felonies in Landmark Cyberbullying Trial

Posted Nov 26, 2008, 02:38 pm CST
By Molly McDonough

Jurors cleared Lori Drew of the most serious charges against her in the first federal cyberbullying case to go to trial.

The six-man, six-woman jury acquitted Drew, 49, of three felony charges of violating the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Wired magazine reports.

The high-profile case drew international attention after allegations emerged that Drew's participation in a 2006 MySpace hoax led to a 13-year-old girl's suicide.

The dead girl's mother, Tina Meier, reportedly shook her head as the verdict was read.

Wired notes that the case hinged on a novel argument, that violating MySpace's terms of service for the purpose of harming another was the legal equivalent of computer hacking. Drew faced up to five years in prison for each charge.

Jurors, however, convicted Drew of three misdemeanor counts of gaining unauthorized access to MySpace to gather information about the girl, Megan Meier. Jurors deadlocked on a related conspiracy charge.

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Posted by B. McLeod - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 20 hours, 3 minutes ago

Of course, as those of us who have ever done any federal work are well aware, federal crimes exist only by legislative enactment. The required “elements” must be shown to establish guilt, and simply being miserably deficient in basic human decency does not constitute a federal felony.
Posted by Deyseeme T. Rollin - 1 month, 1 week, 4 days, 19 hours, 26 minutes ago

@B. McLeod—You’re right, but every part of me wishes you were wrong. This case showed me a side of myself that I didn’t know existed—a side that can see the shortcomings of charges, but still wants to see a little justice meted out.

Imagine my surprise—I thought that part of me died during law school!
Posted by odedy - 1 month, 1 week, 20 hours, 33 minutes ago

The only answer to the problem of kid’s safety online is by using age verification systems such as the innovative biometric age verification system provided by VerificAge (www.verificage.com):
- Establishes full segregation between adults and children online
- Does not use any kind of data base. Eliminating risks involved in storing and maintaining data.
- It does not identify the user personally but rather his/her age group category; therefore, the user’s privacy cannot be jeopardized.
- The system is based on a “one time” biometric measurement that can distinguish a child from an adult with a very high accuracy rate.
- It can assert a user’s age every time he wishes to access a website, content, or while interacting with others
It seems that VerificAge’s solution is going to change children’s surfing culture on the Net and increase dramatically children’s safety online.
Posted by B. McLeod - 1 month, 1 week, 19 hours, 50 minutes ago

Wow, a commercial!!
Posted by Pete Heinz - 1 month, 1 week, 14 hours, 3 minutes ago

Do what she did to the child of a lawyer or judge…
Posted by iggy - 1 month, 6 days, 23 hours, 32 minutes ago

Let me start by saying that what she did was reprehensible and all I can think to say to her would be to “grow up and act like an adult.” However, for the sake of argument, is it reasonable to forsee suicide as the outcome? I admit that it has been awhile since I read about this incident and don’t remember the details. If memory serves, the woman posed as a boy online, befriended the girl and then “dumped” her in a rather mean way, all online. Once again, reprehensible, but was the girl’s suicide forseeable? I think to fairly judge the fraud charges you have to remove the suicide from the equation anyway. If the girl did not die, I doubt anyone would have pushed for felony charges in this case. I may be wrong here, I am not a lawyer.

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