LOS ANGELES (AP) --—
Convictions against the main player in the MySpace suicide case were thrown out Thursday by a Los Angeles federal judge.
Lori Drew was facing up to three years in jail in the cyber-bullying case that ended with Megan Meier's suicide.
Drew was convicted last November on three misdemeanor counts of illegally accessing a protected computer.But after a sentencing hearing that lasted close to an hour on Thursday, Judge George Wu acquitted her. Megan's mom, Tina Meier, tells us she is disappointed by the ruling.
But she still feels like justice is being served because her daughter's case is helping to combat cyber-bullying. "Of course I'm extremely upset with the decision that the judge made," said Tina after the judge's decision. Prosecutors argued that Drew masterminded the scheme to create a fictitious boy named Josh Evans on MySpace. The alleged reason- to see what Megan was saying about Drew's daughter.
Megan exchanged myspace messages with the fictitious character. But the messages turned mean with the final chilling words saying to Megan "the world would be a better place without you." The 13 year old committed suicide at her Dardenne Prairie home a short time later in October of 2006. Megan's father, Ron Meier, said after the decision, "The verdict at the end may not be what we looked for. But my daughter's death and their hard work brought a lot of notice to this type of activity that's going on in the world today."
In the hearing, the judge said that if Drew was found guilty of the misdemeanors, then anyone who ever violated the myspace service terms was also guilty. Drew's attorney, Dean Steward, says the case never should have been brought in the first place. "Victories in federal court are sweet and rare. This one sadly is tempered by the tragedy of what happened in this case," explained Steward. Prosecutors say they did their best but they knew this would be a tough case from the start.
Tina said this about Lori Drew: "I wouldn't want to be in Lori Drew's shoes and live her life. I think she's already basically living a life conviction right now." In addition to the jail time, Drew could have also faced a $300,000 fine. The judge said his ruling was tentative until he put it in writing.
It's unclear when that could come. A spokesperson at the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles tells us no decision will be made about an appeal until that final written ruling is issued.
