RRRED

"Jury Selection Begins in MySpace Suicide Trial

By Kim Zetter November 18, 2008 | 4:10:42 PMCategories: Lori Drew Trial

LOS ANGELES -- Jury selection began Tuesday in the trial of a Missouri woman accused of making unauthorized use of MySpace to cause emotional harm to a 13-year-old girl.

Forty-nine-year-old Lori Drew of O'Fallon, Missouri is charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of unauthorized computer access for allegedly creating a fake MySpace account to inflict intentional emotional distress on a teenage girl, Megan Meir, who then committed suicide in 2006.

Drew -- in a casual green blouse and pants, a white sweater and brown leather slip-on shoes -- appeared relaxed as the jury selection commenced Tuesday morning. She sat beside her attorney, H. Dean Steward.

The trial marks the first federal criminal case to arise from a user's alleged violation of website's terms-of-service, and critics of the prosecution say it could have dangerous implications for internet users -- potentially setting a precedent for charging users with felonies for violating often-abusive click-wrap contracts."

Rest of story click here...

I'm dying to know which way this goes. This has already kick started many law changes state to state starting with Missouri...

In fact, I'm honored to say that Tina Meier, Megans mom, emailed me on Sunday. My daughter and I were very happy to hear from her. She went to LA yesterday for this trial but when she gets back, we are going to get on the phone and she said that she'd do ANYTHING she can to help me change the laws in Washington state.

RIP Megan... your life wasn't in vain. Justice will be served one way or another.

Fuck you Lori Drew. I hope you rot in hell regardless to the outcome of this trial.

brand0n

making a fake myspace is against the law?

i mean i see where they are going but c'mon..

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WiredGuy

Its the bullying that parents are lobbying to stop, similiar to bullying at school.
WG

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I play with Google.

$5 submissions

Given the amount of tortious intent and foreseeable emotional harm involved in the alleged actions, I strongly suspect that the outcome will differ greatly from the (in)famous lawsuit against Ozzy Osbourne. In that case, the plaintiffs claimed their children committed suicide due to Ozzy's subliminal lyrics in Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" urging them to "end your life". Ozzy took the stand to say that the lyrics actually said "Enjoy life".

That case fell on the issue of proximate cause--was the suicide legally foreseeable.

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Ayla_SquareTurtle

I read about this case before. It is strange that it comes down to, essentially, creating a fake myspace profile. The thing is that it was an adult posing as a minor in order to talk to an actual minor, and this adult basically lied over and over and over again in a deliberate attempt to manipulate the minor and toy with her emotions.

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RRRED

Actually, lucky for Lori (satan) Drew, they are keeping Megans death details out of it. This is the United States vs. Drew... http://www.citmedialaw.org/threats/united-states-v-drew

"The grand jury charged Drew with conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), 18 U.S.C. § 1030. The indictment charges that

[o]n or about the following dates, defendant DREW, using a computer in O'Fallon, Missouri, intentionally accessed and caused to be accessed a computer used in interstate commerce, namely, the MySpace servers located in Los Angeles County, California, within the Central District of California, without authorization and in excess of authorized access, and, by means of interstate commerce obtained and caused to be obtained information from that computer to further tortious acts, namely intentional infliction of emotional distress on [Meier]. "

I tried to read up on that last night but I still don't totally get their angle... should be interesting either way...

BlackCrayon

I don't get why someone would kill themselves over a myspace page.

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you don't know you're wearing a leash if you sit by the peg all day..

MetaMan

this world is fully of babies, there is starving kids in africa and you are worried about a myspace page?

the parents of the girl who committed suicide should be drug out into the desert and booted in the groin several times.

i cant stand this fucking world, some people are weak links, ya its sad but people need to start owning up to their own individual responsibility and stop trying to point fingers or find people to blame.

little brats these days are just that little brats, parents over baby them and then when they are sent out into the real world to deal with real life situations this kind of shit happens.

$5 submissions

The BOLD parts are key--tortious acts. Replace intentional infliction of emotional distress with fraud or other actionable claims.

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Vexes

This is bullshit prosecution. Abuse of the law by Federal Prosecutor who is looking for TV time.

This is a threat to ALL the people here on GFY. Imagine if some unstable putz commits suicide and blames it all on someone making fun of him on GFY!!

Don't think it could happen?

RRRED

[QUOTE=MetaMan;15073722]
the parents of the girl who committed suicide should be drug out into the desert and booted in the groin several times.

QUOTE]


In essence, they have ;)

That's besides the point. The feds seem to think that it's not ok for a grown adult to use anonyminity to mentally abuse a vulnerable 13 year old child, especially because she knew first hand that the girl suffered from mental issues already. That adult needs to be taken out in the desert and booted in the groin whether Megan died or not. She needs to pay consequences for being a sick individual that preys upon children for her own sick entertainment.

RRRED

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10986770

Oh shit... the judge was originally not going to allow details of her death in the case cuz it was supposedly unrelated to what the charges were. But last Friday...



"U.S. District Judge George Wu previously indicated he might bar any mention of suicide because it could be prejudicial, but he changed his mind after hearing lawyers' arguments.

Wu said he was now convinced that many prospective jurors would be aware of the suicide from reading news reports or seeing a recent episode of the TV show "Law and Order" that involved a similar scenario.

He said he would instruct jurors, possibly at the outset of the trial, that the case was not about the suicide and that Drew is not charged with causing the suicide. "



and...



"Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Krause argued during the hearing Friday that Drew is charged with joining in a conspiracy to cause intentional infliction of emotional distress.

"Showing that this victim took the ultimate step of taking her own life shows the level of her distress," Krause said. "



She's fucked!! And Vexes, you are possibly right. That's what makes this case so interesting. Those laws have never been used before in a social networking case. It's really weird and could change alot of things in alot of ways.

Bojangles

That's crazy..