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A Los Angeles federal judge has tentatively thrown out the convictions of a Missouri mother for her role in a MySpace hoax directed at a 13-year-old neighbor girl who ended up committing suicide. In his ruling Thursday, U.S. District Judge George Wu has acquitted Lori Drew of misdemeanor counts of accessing computers without authorization. Wu says his ruling will become final when he issues it in writing. Drew was convicted in a trial, but the judge says that if she is to be found guilty of illegally accessing computers, anyone who has ever violated the social networking site's terms of...

Hard Cases, it is said, make bad law" -John Campbell Argyll When a jury convicted 49 year old Lori Drew of O`Fallon Missouri (an ex-urb of St. Louis) in the now-infamous cyber-bullying case in which Drew posed as a teenage boy on Myspace to woo-then harass-13 year old Megan Meier, many were pleased that justice was done. But that pleasure quickly turned to disgust when it was learned that the jury`s verdict came with a standardized recommendation of probation and a large fine rather than jail time. The presiding judge in the case can still impose jail time at the...

Conviction on lesser charges in MySpace case Mother guilty of misdemeanor charges in cyber-bullying in which girl died updated 4:38 p.m. CT, Wed., Nov. 26, 2008 A Missouri mother on trial in a landmark cyberbullying case was convicted Wednesday of only three minor offenses for her role in a mean-spirited Internet hoax that apparently drove a 13-year-old girl to suicide. The federal jury could not reach a verdict on the main charge against 49-year-old Lori Drew — conspiracy — and rejected three other felony counts of accessing computers without authorization to inflict emotional harm. Instead, the panel found Drew guilty...

LOS ANGELES – The grieving mother of a Missouri girl told a jury Wednesday how her daughter hanged herself with a belt after receiving cruel messages on her MySpace account, some of which were from a boy whose identity was later revealed to have been invented by a neighbor. Tina Meier recounted how "Josh Evans" interacted online with her 13-year-old daughter, Megan, during the first day of the trial against Lori Drew, who is accused of taking part in the Internet hoax that prosecutors say led to Megan's suicide. Meier said after a name-calling exchange between Megan, "Josh," and two...

SEPTEMBER 23--The California woman charged with orchestrating a cruel online hoax that led to the suicide of a teenage girl was once so pleased with her prank that she shared details of the ongoing scheme with her hairdresser and other acquaintances, according to prosecutors. During conversations with several individuals, Lori Drew explained how she and others were "playing a joke on" Megan Meier, a 13-year-girl who was a rival of Drew's daughter. That joke involved Drew's creation of a MySpace page for a "Josh Evans," a nonexistent boy who took an online liking to Meier, but then abruptly turned on...

The case against a Missouri mother accused of creating a fake MySpace page to harass a 13-year-old girl should be tossed out of court because if she is guilty as charged, then so are millions of Internet users every day, her attorney said in court documents filed today. The papers show that Lori Drew, who was the focus of national outrage after the girl committed suicide, will seize on a weakness in the prosecution case that has been noted by several legal experts since her May indictment: While her alleged behavior may have been wrong, there is no specific legal...

A 49-year-old woman pleaded not guilty to charges arising from her role in a MySpace hoax that ended with a 13-year-old girl committing suicide after being spurned by a fictitious boy. Lori Drew, 49, of Missouri, denied charges of conspiracy to inflict emotional distress and accessing MySpace computers without authorization. She will fact trial on July 29. Prosecutors say Drew set up a fake account on the social networking site and posed, with others, as a 16-year-old boy "Josh Evans" to target a classmate of her teenage daughter, Megan Meier. Meier hanged herself in October 2006, shortly after receiving a...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Missouri woman who prosecutors say used a fake MySpace persona to "torment, harass, humiliate and embarrass" a 13-year-old girl who committed suicide was indicted on Thursday on federal charges. Lori Drew, accused of participating in a hoax on 13-year-old Megan Meier that led her to believe she was chatting with a 16-year-old boy, was indicted on conspiracy charges by a U.S. District Court jury in Los Angeles. Meier had what she thought was an online friendship with the fictional boy, "Josh Evans."

Teen Admits She Created Profile and Wrote Messages; Testifies Against Neighborhood Mom In an exclusive interview with "Good Morning America," Ashley Grills, 19, admitted she was part of a scheme to create a fake persona on MySpace and start an online romance with a 13-year-old neighbor, Megan Meier. Ashley Grills discusses her role in a MySpace scheme linked to a girl's suicide. Grills insisted, though, that she was not the only adult involved in the cruel hoax, which eventually led the emotionally vulnerable Meier to commit suicide in October 2006, after her spurious online boyfriend and others began making nasty...

His name was Josh Evans. He was 16 years old. And he was hot. "Mom! Mom! Mom! Look at him!" Tina Meier recalls her daughter saying. Josh had contacted Megan Meier through her MySpace page and wanted to be added as a friend.Yes, he's cute, Tina Meier told her daughter. "Do you know who he is?"