Woman pleads innocent in Myspace hoax suicide case
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A Missouri woman who prosecutors say drove a 13-year-old neighbor girl to suicide with a cruel MySpace hoax pleaded innocent to federal charges on Thursday in the unprecedented case.
Lori Drew, who is accused of creating the fake MySpace persona of a 16-year-old boy to woo and then viciously reject neighbor Megan Meier, pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy and accessing a protected computer to obtain information.
She was ordered to stand trial on July 26 in the case, which legal experts say stretches the bounds of the federal statute on which it is based, a law typically used to prosecute defendants who hack into government computers.
A federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted Drew in May after authorities in Missouri, where she lived four doors away from Meier in the St. Louis suburb of O’Fallon, declined to prosecute her, saying there was no law under which she could be charged.
She faces 20 years in prison if convicted.
Drew, who traveled to Los Angeles for her initial court appearance in the case, did not address the court during the brief arraignment hearing. She stood quietly next to her attorney as he entered the not guilty pleas.
