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| MySpace suicide conviction tentatively dismissed, Judge slaps crybaby liberals with reality.
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Posted on: Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:16:21 +0200
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http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN0210433020090702
Judge says prosecution selective, vague
* Prosecutor considering options, including appeal (Adds
details, quotes; byline)
By Gina Keating
LOS ANGELES, July 2 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Thursday
tentatively dismissed the conviction of a suburban mother
accused of driving a love-lorn 13-year-old girl to suicide by
tormenting her with a fake MySpace persona.
U.S. District Judge George Wu said during a hearing in a Los
Angeles courtroom that prosecutors' application of a federal
anti-hacking statute against the Missouri woman, Lori Drew, was
selective and the law was unconstitutionally vague.
In a high-profile cyber-bullying case that drew worldwide
headlines, Drew was found guilty in November 2008 of three
misdemeanor counts of accessing a protected computer without
authorization.
She was acquitted of more serious felony charges. The jury
deadlocked on a fourth felony conspiracy count.
Drew was accused of creating a fake profile on the MySpace
social networking website, owned by News Corp (NWSA.O) and
posing as a age boy to tease and humiliate 13-year-old Megan
Meier, a neighbor who had quarreled with Drew's daughter.
Megan ultimately committed suicide, hanging herself in her
bedroom closet in October 2006.
Drew had faced a sentence ranging from probation to three years
behind bars on the three misdemeanor counts. Had the judge
upheld the conviction, she had been scheduled to be sentenced at
Thursday's hearing.
Instead, the judge said he was tentatively granting the defense
motion to throw out the convictions and would render a final,
written opinion at some point in the future.
Some legal experts have criticized the prosecution of Drew on
the basis of an anti-hacking statute -- the first case of its
kind -- saying the law was intended to punish people who break
into computers to steal information.
U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien, who led the prosecution of the
case personally, said afterward he would wait for a final ruling
before deciding whether to appeal the dismissal.
O'Brien, who was accused of grandstanding when he brought the
case, also left open the possibility of retrying Drew on the
conspiracy charge for which the jury failed to reach a verdict.
"The prosecution of Lori Drew was a case I felt strongly I had
to pursue. I believe it warranted a serious sentence," he told
reporters. O'Brien shrugged off accusations by the defense
lawyer, H. Dean Howard, that he was prosecuting Drew to further
his own career.
Megan's mother, Tina Meier, said she was "extremely upset with
the decision the judge made."
"I wouldn't want to be in Lori Drew's shoes and live her life,"
she added. I think she is already living a life sentence."
(Writing by Steve Gorman; editing by Dan Whitcomb and Todd
Eastham)
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