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MySpace's suicide case?


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"The lawyer for a Missouri mother accused of creating a fake MySpace page to harass a 13-year-old girl is arguing that charges should be tossed out of court because 'if she is guilty, then so are millions of Internet users every day.'

Lori Drew became the focus of national outrage after the girl committed suicide. Court papers filed yesterday seize on a possible weakness in the prosecution case that has been noted by several legal experts since the May indictment: While Drew's alleged behavior may have been wrong, there is no legal sanction against it.

In charging Drew, prosecutors relied on their belief that she, like countless others on social networks such as MySpace, created a fake identity -- in this case, a 16-year-old boy, "Josh Evans," who flirted with and then rejected 13-year-old Megan Meier.

"The government, in its zeal to charge Lori Drew with something, anything, has tried to criminalize everyday, ordinary conduct: the wayward or misuse of a social-network website," defense attorney H. Dean Steward wrote in a motion to dismiss that was filed yesterday.

Prosecutors say Drew created the "Josh Evans" identity in order to strike up a flirty conversation with Meier, who had been friends with her daughter. After a few weeks of chatting, "Josh Evans" began to send Megan nasty messages. Finally, her father said, one suggested that "the world would be a better place'' without her.

In October 2006, soon after allegedly receiving the message, Meier hanged herself in her bedroom. "

What do you think- are all us internet users talking people into suicide? Is she guilty of something- if so, what?
DeliaTheArtist

38 responses // MySpace's suicide case?

  • Here's my thoughts, what's yours?
    mattbrawn
    1 response to this
  • the 13 year old girl went online......thats a choice.....her fault..her emotions
    hankgoold09
    2 responses to this
  • yeah tru...well said...some peope today.....dumb bitch
    Akash
  • What a strange story. Do we know why the woman targeted this specific girl? Of course what she did was wrong, but she has a good point in saying that a lot of people adopt false identities, so while I think she should be charged, it is really difficult to draw the line.
    JanaPokana
    2 responses to this
  • Hate crime? Not sure if that's a crime in the US, but it is here.

    What a disgusting, messed up person.
    mischabarrett
  • For me this is a tough call. Like so many things that happen in this day and age, it's hard for anyone to say what they would do if this was their daughter, sister, freind.
    I would suggest, Burn the Bitch! I live near Salem, Ma.
    Or press her to death!
    macdontcare
  • Before the Internet, bullies at high school told me and others to kill ourselves. It made the Gen-X suicide rate go up. The woman was not being responsible and pushed the girl into suicide. Some children are impressionable and will believe anything they are told. We need to teach children critical thinking so they can think for themselves and not believe everything they are told, even by some anonymous Internet bully. It is a sad story that the girl killed herself, but this law punishes people who use aliases on the Internet who aren't sociopaths or bullies, but just want to be anonymous.

    http://www.criticalthinking.org/

    It is not religious or anti-religious, it is logic and reason and common sense based. It can teach ethics and morals and allow the child to choose their own ethics and morals.
    orionblastar
  • They had a fight and decided not to be friends. The woman's own daughter posted some nasty comments about the girl on her own myspace which fueled the relationships breakdown. After the girl's mother built out this myspace identity, while soliciting help from one of her employees, to befriend and pump her for information. Mainly the goal was to see if she was going to be talking 'ish' about her daughter. After things between the two teens were obviously not going to be fixed the mother, who was well aware that the girl was on antidepressants and seeing a therapist, started to send her mean and vicious emails from her fake myspace personality. Finally she, er the personality, told her that she no longer wished to talk to her again and the world would be a better place without her.

    The issues here is that this woman accessed information on the girl from a secured database that she did not have permission to access and did so illegally. The law is normally used to prosecute hackers but in recent light has been used in online stalking and harassment cases.

    In this one she accessed the information and went out of her way to pursue a relationship with the girl. After she realized that there was no hope in rekindling the friendship for her daughter she used the previously known information regarding her mental instability to force a crisis in the teen's life.

    My one question for the mom that did this: were you expecting her to commit suicide or simply revert back to the cutting you were aware she had done in the past?

    Either way, she had to have known that her actions were going to cause harm to a child, which in the spirit of the law is wrong. I'm not saying that I think she should be charged with murder, but her reckless actions caused the death of a minor and that needs to be addressed.
    clarity_kat
  • What is egregious about this situation is that an adult (someone supposedly trustworthy?) purposely attempted to harm a child. Her intent may not have been to push this child to suicide yet it certainly seems to have contributed.

    As a mental health professional I work with folks everyday who are harmed by other's words and attitudes. If one is depressed then criticism and ugliness wounds more deeply.

    I am sickened and appalled that an adult ( or anybody) would participate in such an ugly behavior.
    MeganMcKenzie
    1 response to this
  • There was WAY more going on in that little girls head then just being rejected by a boy (Or, in this case, a grown women acting like a boy). Where exactly was this 13 year old girls parents? Probably looking for someone else to sue. Either way, the women online is a fuckin bitch but you don't go to jail for being a bitch. You get knocked the fuck out for being a bitch.
    NoGodsNoMasters
  • Everyones to blame. The girl got Lori daughter upset. The mother did not do the right thing and did the thing that "felt right." The Lori should have a punishment for playing with a 13 year old girl emotions like that.
    KefKef
  • Yes, I think before we say "it's the girls fault, they are her emotions" and the like, we have to think about the fact that she's 13! You're really not in full control of your emotions at 13, if anything, you're more confused than ever. It's a pretty weird story, and honestly I'm not sure where I fall on it.
    DeliaTheArtist
  • Now hold the phone....

    If it were a adult MAN setting up a fake profile and "flirting" with a 13 year old girl, um, isn't that really illegal?

    I think we call those people sexual predators.

    But, okay, in this case it's an adult woman who set up a fake profile to "flirt" with an underage teenage girl.

    When a male sexual predator claims, "But I didn't DO anything!" their arrested anyway. Now this women is making the same claim and the case is about to be tossed out?

    If it were two teens fighting each other online -- that's acceptable.

    If it were two adults fighting each other online -- that's acceptable too.

    But when an adult is stalking (and that's what this is essentially) a underage girl -- that's got to be illegal.

    Because if what this adult woman did was perfectly legal -- then what the hell is Dateline (in cooperation with the police) doing setting up all the stings to catch adult male sexual predators?

    The defense of the predators is always, "But I didn't actually do anything!"

    Well, in this particular case the adult woman didn't really "do anything" except talk either.

    So if we can arrest one group for setting up false profiles and just chatting with underage girls -- why shouldn't this adult women who set up a false profile and "just chatted" be able to go scott free?

    An adult sets up a false profile and engages a underage female in conversation that is agreeded to by all parties as "flirtatious" at the beginning and "hostile" and "threatening" at the end of the online relationship -- and the Defense is arguing that the case should be tossed out because no actual crime has been committed?
    recommended by  Vierotchka
    crob80227
    5 responses to this
  • This is a really interesting case. I agree that she's in the wrong here and what she did was horrible to do to a girl with low self-esteem like that, but I'm struggling to find anything to charge her with. Personally, I'd like to see more action on the part of social networks to help protect children. I don't think it should be required (less government regulation, the better), but it'd be nice if popular sites that know a lot of young kids are using it did something to help them.

    That said, I'm not quite sure what that should be. Requiring a parent's email to sign up? Kids would lie, but it couldn't hurt. That way kids under 18 would have to have parental permission and maybe that could let parents know who their children are talking to or what they're saying in some cases.
    enum_Bossman
  • The mother shouldn't have done that. But, i don't think that's the only reason why the 13 year old girl committed suicide.
    jimenagamio
  • I think the key component here is premeditation.

    An adult was specifically stalking an underage girl with the specific intent of malice. This wasn;t a chance meeting or happenstance. This was premediation with the intent to cause mental distress. That the girl killed herself is almost totally beside the point. Had the girl NOT killed herself that would not excuse the predatory behavior of the adult.

    Wouldn't we be opening up a Pandora's Box if we allowed the "It Was Just A Joke!" defense to be a legal precedent?

    Let's explore this possible scenario:

    What if I (as an adult) decided I didn't like the underage kid that lives down the street from me, so one day I decide to play a "joke" on him with the specific intention of upsetting the boy.

    I walk down the street and find the boy playing in his front yard. I walk up to the kid, tell him I have a gun in my pocket and that I'm very angry with his Father and that I'm going to "straighten him out right now!" I also imply that if he hears any loud gunshots coming from inside his house that he better run and hide to be safe.

    The kid (understandably) becomes frightened, wets himself and runs into the house and tells his Dad what happened.

    I'm sued for causing mental distress to the boy as well as harrassement.

    BUT!

    My defense is identical to the Myspace woman's.

    It was just a joke.

    I didn't really have a gun.

    I didn't physically threaten the boy at all.

    I didn't actually go inside the boys house

    I didn't "do" anything to the underage child in this example.

    Did I commit a crime?

    Am I totally innocent and is everything I did perfectly legal?
    crob80227
  • What sort of sick, twisted, pathetic life does this so-called adult have that she sets up a fake profile to stalk an emotionally unstable13 year old? She and your daughter aren't friends anymore? MOVE ON! 13 year olds are notorious for making and dumping BFF. To deliberately screw around with that child's emotions is reprehensible. Maybe she should be charged with reckless endangerment.
    sofaslug
  • Just because everyone else does it doesn't make it right. As an adult she should know that. She doesn't even feel guilty and that makes it even worse.

    She can't handle what she dished out. Oh poor her.
    J_Jammer
  • My first response is to question what was lacking in the relationship between the 13yr old and her mother? why was she unable to tell her mother what was goin on with her (as best a 13yr old can!) Then you see the other mother... what was she thinking?What was her goal with doing this? Wheres her respect for herself and her position as a role model? Wow...
    Azucena
  • let's hope the town this loser lives in makes her life miserable by ostracizing her .
    malathion
    1 response to this
  • she's not on trial for creating a false online profile... isn't it harassment? This woman went OUT OF HER WAY to manipulate the girl's feelings and then maliciously put her down and rejected her. just because.

    having her own daughter that age, she should know how sensitive and hurtful that could be.. she should just know better.. what kind of parent is that? is she projecting some sort of residual high school angst? why is she messing with 13 year old girls online? don't they have enough shit to deal with?
    talicatz
  • I think the method in which the Lori (the adult woman) chose to harrass the underage girl is clouding her actual behaviour and making it difficult for us to see exactly what she did. Since the manner of the harassement seems somewhat juvenile (creating a false Myspace page, flirting, etc) the actual intentions of the woman are being skewed.

    This is how Lori's Defense attorney frames the situation (which seems a little misleading from the outset):

    "The government, in its zeal to charge Lori Drew with something, anything, has tried to criminalize everyday, ordinary conduct: the wayward or misuse of a social-network website," defense attorney H. Dean Steward wrote in a motion to dismiss that was filed yesterday.

    Notice how the attorney has skillfully framed Lori Drew's predatory behavior towards the underage girl as "ordinary conduct." Lori Drew's calculated plan to cause mental anguish to an underage minor whom she knew -- a plan she had to stick to for WEEKS to see through to its fruition! -- is neither everyday or ordinary.

    Is it illegal for one underage girl to say mean things to another underage girl? No.

    Is it illegal for one adult to say mean things (without threatening physical violence or blackmail) to another adult? Nope. Perfectly legal.

    Is it illegal for one adult to stalk another adult with the express purpose of causing mental anguish? Yes it is.

    Is it illegal for an adult to stalk a minor with the express purpose of causing mental anguish? Yes it is.

    Should Lori Drew be charged with manslaughter? No. The girl committed suicide and it would be impossible in this case to prove that Lori's actions were linked to the girl's death.

    Should Lori Drew be charged with harassment or stalking? Yes. Lori Drew concocted a plan specifically designed to cause mental anguish to a minor and spent WEEKS bringing that plan to fruition. That clearly fits the definition of stalking and harrassment.
    crob80227
    1 response to this
  • I believe she should be held accountable for Murder in Third Degree. We cannot let people harass or molest children nor your future children.

    Respect above all Things.
    petarro
  • you shouldnt toy with someones emotions like that, especially a 13 year old girl coming into women hood.
    What kind of mother is she..
    adele2310

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