Lori Drew Dodges Felony Charges

The stupid mother charged with driving a teenage girl to commit suicide had all felony charges dismissed against her. However, three minor misdemeanor charges stuck, and the jury convicted her of accessing a computer improperly. It turns out she used another person’s username and password to access the account of a fake Myspace profile of a boy. It was this profile that was used to taunt the girl, Megan Meier, and cause the girl to commit suicide.

From the AP here:

A jury on Wednesday was unable to reach a verdict on the main conspiracy charge and instead convicted a Missouri woman of three minor offenses for her role in an Internet hoax that apparently drove a 13-year-old girl to suicide.

The Los Angeles federal court jury rejected felony charges of accessing a computer without authorization to inflict emotional distress on young Megan Meier.

However, the jury found defendant Lori Drew guilty of three counts of the lesser offense of accessing a computer without authorization. Each count is punishable by up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

Lori Drew won’t do a day in jail, as I predicted.  And from this Wired article here, it reveals that Lori Drew really had nothing to do with the fake profile or the emails that drove Megan to suicide.  It says here:

Ashley Grills said that the hoax was her idea, not Drew’s, and that it was Grills who created the Josh Evans profile, and later sent the cruel message that tipped the emotionally-vulnerable 13-year-old girl into her final, tragic act.

This trial came very close to setting a dangerous precedent that would have outlawed being anonymous while online, which would have gone a long way to stifling free speech.  I’m glad that anonymity is preserved at least for now.  Next, Missouri should get with the 21st century and enact laws that punish cyber bullies and cyber stalkers.  Most of the other states have them.