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Prosecutor Will Review Megan Meier Cyberbullying Case | Threat Level from Wired.com
By Kim Zetter November 19, 2007 | 3:44:30 PMCategories: Crime, Privacy
In response to public outcry over the suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier, a St. Charles County prosecutor has announced plans to review the case to determine if adults that set up a MySpace account used to bully Meier have committed any crime. Local legislators are also looking at adopting an ordinance that would make internet harassment a misdemeanor offense.
It's unclear, though, whether prosecutors would be able to make a case against the adults since police and prosecutors previously told reporters that they could find no state or federal crime that would be applicable to this case.
Although a newspaper that broke the story about Megan's death last week declined to identify the two adults suspected of setting up the account, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch identified Lori and Curt Drew as being the focus of interest in a story published this morning. The names of the Drews, as well as their address and phone numbers, were discovered by bloggers last week, who posted the information in the interest of denying the family the privacy that the first paper, the St. Charles Journal, had given them.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, neighbors have been shunning the Drews for a year, since Megan Meier's death in October 2006. The family has also received threatening phone calls and had a brick thrown through a window at their home.
St. Charles County Prosecutor Jack Banas said the problem with such a case isn't just whether a law has been broken but determining who was responsible for what. According to a police report Lori Drew filed, she acknowledged that she, along with an employee of hers, opened a MySpace account under the name Josh Evans in order to communicate anonymously with Megan Meier. But she said that others also used the account to send Meier messages.
The story has received national attention since first appearing in the local paper last week. CNN ran a report on the story in which the police report was shown. The Meiers were interviewed for the piece, but the Drews declined to be interviewed. You can see the video here.
Wow, this is a good awareness for us parents who have children using myspace.com. What's so troubling is that those two adults are the parents of a girl the same age as Megan set up this fake myspace account masterquading as a young boy showing interest in Megan. What's wrong with these parents to do something like that???!!!!
By Kim Zetter November 19, 2007 | 3:44:30 PMCategories: Crime, Privacy
In response to public outcry over the suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier, a St. Charles County prosecutor has announced plans to review the case to determine if adults that set up a MySpace account used to bully Meier have committed any crime. Local legislators are also looking at adopting an ordinance that would make internet harassment a misdemeanor offense.
It's unclear, though, whether prosecutors would be able to make a case against the adults since police and prosecutors previously told reporters that they could find no state or federal crime that would be applicable to this case.
Although a newspaper that broke the story about Megan's death last week declined to identify the two adults suspected of setting up the account, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch identified Lori and Curt Drew as being the focus of interest in a story published this morning. The names of the Drews, as well as their address and phone numbers, were discovered by bloggers last week, who posted the information in the interest of denying the family the privacy that the first paper, the St. Charles Journal, had given them.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, neighbors have been shunning the Drews for a year, since Megan Meier's death in October 2006. The family has also received threatening phone calls and had a brick thrown through a window at their home.
St. Charles County Prosecutor Jack Banas said the problem with such a case isn't just whether a law has been broken but determining who was responsible for what. According to a police report Lori Drew filed, she acknowledged that she, along with an employee of hers, opened a MySpace account under the name Josh Evans in order to communicate anonymously with Megan Meier. But she said that others also used the account to send Meier messages.
The story has received national attention since first appearing in the local paper last week. CNN ran a report on the story in which the police report was shown. The Meiers were interviewed for the piece, but the Drews declined to be interviewed. You can see the video here.
Wow, this is a good awareness for us parents who have children using myspace.com. What's so troubling is that those two adults are the parents of a girl the same age as Megan set up this fake myspace account masterquading as a young boy showing interest in Megan. What's wrong with these parents to do something like that???!!!!
, I feel so horrible for Megan's parents and her sister, now seeing them going through a divorce and etc, this is soo sad, The Drew had no right to create a fake username on myspace and pretend that they were a " guy " named Josh, just to find out whether or not Megan was talking about their daughter, which she wasn't. they did was wrong If I was Megan's parents, I would fight to make this a law cause bully someone is just so wrong period, children are killing themselves cause of that, and something needs to be done.