Nov 20, 2009 10:46 pm US/Pacific
Feds Won't File Appeal In MySpace Suicide Case
LOS ANGELES (CBS) ―
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Lori Drew, a Missouri woman who allegedly perpetrated a MySpace hoax that drove her daughter's 13-year-old classmate to suicide, leaves court Thursday Sept. 4, 2008 in Los Angeles.
AP
Federal prosecutors announced Friday that they will not seek an appeal in the Lori Drew MySpace suicide case.
"We had filed a notice of appeal to protect our right in the appeals court," said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles. "We decided we will not pursue an appeal, so this case is now
concluded."
In July, a judge threw out the government's case against the 50-year-old Drew and acquitted her of three misdemeanor counts.
The Missouri woman had been convicted last November on three counts of the federal computer fraud act for using a fake MySpace account to harass Megan Meier, a teenage girl who later committed suicide.
The decision not to appeal, ends Drew's nearly two-year legal battle in Los Angeles federal court.
The prosecution of Drew relied on a reading of the federal hacking law, in which Drew was prosecuted for violating MySpace's terms of service for lying
in an online profile.
U.S. District Judge George H. Wu, though, ruled the government's theory
unconstitutional.
Meier, 13, hanged herself in October 2006 after receiving insulting messages from a user of the social networking Web site MySpace. One of the messages suggested "the world would be a better place" without Meier.
The teen thought the messages were from a boy she liked, but the "boy" was actually a fake profile created by Drew, her teen daughter and a family friend.
In his ruling, Wu said prosecutors' use of a federal anti-computer hacking statute against Drew was selective and "unconstitutionally vague."
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
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