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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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 Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 5:48 pm Post subject: Internet Brings out the Worst in People |
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LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A Missouri mom was indicted Thursday for her alleged role in the death of a teen who killed herself over a failed Internet romance that turned out to be a hoax.
A federal indictment accuses Lori Drew, 49, of O'Fallon, Missouri, of using the social networking Web site MySpace.com to pose as a 16-year-old boy and feign romantic interest in the girl.
The girl, Megan Meier, committed suicide after her online love interest spurned her, according to prosecutors, telling her the world would be a better place without her.
Drew faces up to 20 years in prison on charges of conspiracy and accessing protected computers to obtain information to inflict emotional distress.
The indictment, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, accuses Drew and others of registering on MySpace as "Josh Evans" and using the account to lure Meier into an an online romance.
Authorities have previously said that Drew set up the account to find out what Meier, who lived in her neighborhood, was saying about her daughter.
Prosecutors allege that Drew and the others violated MySpace's terms of service by using false information to create the account so they could "harass, abuse or harm" Meier, according to the indictment.
The two corresponded for about four weeks before "Josh" broke off the relationship, authorities said. Within an hour, Meier hanged herself in her room and died the next day...
...[The victim's mother] said when her daughter began receiving messages from "Josh" telling her she was pretty, she was thrilled.
When "Josh" broke off the relationship, Tina Meier said, her daughter was devastated...
After Drew learned of the teen's suicide, the indictment alleges, she directed one of the teens involved to "keep her mouth shut" and deleted the account. |
CNN Reports |
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Quack Addict
Joined: 31 Mar 2008
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 6:11 pm Post subject: |
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| Just another tool for people to perpetrate their crimes. They think the internet is anonymous but....it's not! |
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Czarjorge
Joined: 01 May 2007
Location: I now have the same moustache, and it is glorious.
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| Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 6:37 pm Post subject: |
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This woman is clearly an awful person, and the suicide of this girl is saddening, but whose fault is it ultimately.
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| conspiracy and accessing protected computers to obtain information to inflict emotional distress. |
What 'protected computers'? Clearly the intent was to cause emotional distress, but does that mean all people that act in a purposefully prickish manner are subject to indictment? And what was the conspiracy? Are all the 'plastic' girls going to get locked up?
Hmmm, maybe that would be okay.
Clearly this was done because the parents wanted to hang someone for their daughters death. Ultimately suicide is the fault of only the one who commits it, but I wonder how much of this is the desire of her parents to put forward someone else to assuage their own sense of guilt. |
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blurgalurgalurga
Joined: 18 Oct 2007
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| Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 7:55 pm Post subject: |
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I agree with the jist of your comment Jorge, but I still hope they fry the evil cow for being such a rancid, malicious villain. If people use the internet to kick cripples and bash emotionally frail geeks, they deserve a thrashing. Ideally she'd just burn in hell, but there is no hell, so it's gotta be the law that does it to her.
Problematic though, this whole 'emotional harm' thing...obviously we can't lock people up for hurting people's feelings, exactly, but there should be some sort of accountability. |
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ED209
Joined: 17 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 8:05 pm Post subject: |
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| I would agree that we are accountable for the actions we take in life. However, if you are aware that a certain age group or individual is susceptible to these kinds of acts and you create a situation that encourages it to happen, then maybe you are also culpable in a way. How much intention was there on this mother to inflict harm on the child? How much of this was unintentional? How much was the outcome part of the plan? Not too sure which way I stand on this, damn internet messing with our ethics and morals. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 8:14 pm Post subject: |
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| Czarjorge wrote: |
| ...whose fault is it ultimately[?] |
If I were the prosecutor in this case, I would cite the precise wording this woman used when she said, as the journalists have paraphrased her...
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| telling [the victim] the world would be a better place without her. |
(1) She fraudulently established a Myspace account, apparently with the express intent to entice this specific teenage girl into a fake online romance and then cause her pain by "breaking up" when the time was right.
(2) She cultivated and further developed this "romance" over a period of a month. That may be the sickest part of all.
(3) Then she "broke up" with this adolescent, apparently abrubtly, and then told her the world would be a better place without her as a parting shot.
I think this woman knew exactly what she was doing. Some adolescents are emotionally fragile, at least in some contexts. We all know this. This woman's pattern of behavior seems criminal to me, in spirit, if not by the letter of the law.
Last edited by Gopher on Thu May 15, 2008 10:30 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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Cornfed
Joined: 14 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 10:24 pm Post subject: |
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| Am I the only one who things this is really funny? |
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Bramble
Joined: 26 Jan 2007
Location: National treasures need homes
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| Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 10:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Cornfed wrote: |
| Am I the only one who things this is really funny? |
I'm sure all your socks agree with you. Then again, one of them will probably show up and prove me wrong.  |
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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 11:13 pm Post subject: |
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So now violating the TOS of a website is a felony?
This woman had no way to know the girl would commit suicide. Prosecuting lying over the internet opens up a whole can of worms. Most people I know open accounts under other names because either they value their privacy, want to limit spam from their primary accounts, want to use a funny name, or any number of other reasons EXCEPT to be an accessory to murder.
Must I now be worried that, if someone to whom I have said "Drop dead!" at some point in my life actually goes and does so, I can be prosecuted for inflicting emotional harm and thus being an accessory to murder? Would you prosecute me, Gopher? |
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Cornfed
Joined: 14 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 11:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Bramble wrote: |
| Cornfed wrote: |
| Am I the only one who things this is really funny? |
I'm sure all your socks agree with you. Then again, one of them will probably show up and prove me wrong. |
I don't have any "socks". |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 11:21 pm Post subject: |
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| No, Bacasper. I would commit you. |
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Bramble
Joined: 26 Jan 2007
Location: National treasures need homes
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| Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 11:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Cornfed wrote: |
| Bramble wrote: |
| Cornfed wrote: |
| Am I the only one who things this is really funny? |
I'm sure all your socks agree with you. Then again, one of them will probably show up and prove me wrong. |
I don't have any "socks". |
Well, only time will tell, I guess. For now, you're on the watch list. |
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blurgalurgalurga
Joined: 18 Oct 2007
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| Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 12:10 am Post subject: |
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| I definitely don't think she should be up on a murder rap, but I do think she should have something really unpleasant happen to her. She's a hideous beach. |
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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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| Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 12:58 am Post subject: |
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| bacasper wrote: |
So now violating the TOS of a website is a felony?
This woman had no way to know the girl would commit suicide. Prosecuting lying over the internet opens up a whole can of worms. Most people I know open accounts under other names because either they value their privacy, want to limit spam from their primary accounts, want to use a funny name, or any number of other reasons EXCEPT to be an accessory to murder.
Must I now be worried that, if someone to whom I have said "Drop dead!" at some point in my life actually goes and does so, I can be prosecuted for inflicting emotional harm and thus being an accessory to murder? Would you prosecute me, Gopher? |
I agree with Gopher. The woman may have 'had no way to know the girl would commit suicide,' but she did know that she would inflict a lot of pain on a young teenager by doing what she did. Like Gopher, I think that cultivating a (fake) romance over a few weeks was a really sick thing to do. A cyber romance is not a trivial version of a face to face love affair, it can be just as powerful as one carried out in the traditional way. Thousands of people meet and fall in love this way in the 21st century, feeling all the love and passion that might have come if they had met in 'the real world.' So this was a revolting thing to do to a child. Then she 'broke up' with the girl in a way calculated to cause much pain.
Imagine you are a teenager and the person you have fallen in love with, and who has acted as your friend lover and admirer, suddenly turns around and tells you - not only that they are going to terminate this precious relationship but that - 'the world would be a better place without you.' You would be absolutely devastated. Any normal person would guess that this would cause immense pain and distress. Even a mature adult would likely feel terrible distress, yet we are talking about a child.
So it is not just a case of 'lying on the internet' or telling someone flippantly to 'drop dead.' It was a long drawn out and deliberately calculated act. Calculated to wound and hurt. And not done by another silly teenager, but done by a mother! As a mother, I do not know how someone could do this to another's child.
I'm not saying she should be prosecuted for murder, because of course this was probably not her intent, but she should be prosecuted for something. She deliberatly deceived over a significant period with the intention to cause psychological harm to a minor. If there is not a law against that, there should be. |
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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 9:00 am Post subject: |
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| Gopher wrote: |
| No, Bacasper. I would commit you. |
OK, so now you are a psychiatrist, as well as a marine, lawyer, university professor, and who knows whatever else. So now who's lying over the internet? AND your words have caused me psychological distress!  Is this a case of the pot calling the kettle black?
Careful, Gopher, you're treading on thin ice here.
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