Thursday, July 24, 2008

Dismissal sought in MySpace hoax suicide case

By The Associated Press

An attorney for a Missouri woman charged in connection with a MySpace hoax that allegedly led a 13-year-old girl to commit suicide has filed motions in Los Angeles to dismiss the federal case.

Attorney H. Dean Steward says motions were filed Wednesday on behalf of Lori Drew of the St. Louis suburb of O'Fallon.

Drew has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and accessing computers without authorization.

Drew is accused of helping create a false-identity account on the MySpace social networking site to convince young neighbor Megan Meier she was chatting with a teenage boy.

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Megan Meier

Meier, who was being treated for attention deficit disorder and depression, hanged herself in 2006, allegedly after receiving cruel messages, including one saying the world would be better off without her.

Missouri authorities did not file any charges because at the time they could not find any laws that applied.

The case was filed in LA because MySpace's servers are located in that city.

Today's motions claim the indictment violates constitutional due process, fails to state an offense as required by federal rules of criminal procedure and alleges no crime but is instead vague.

U.S. attorney's spokesman Thom Mrozek says a government response is due in three weeks.

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