Four counts have been filed against Lori Drew, the creator of an fictional, online boy who cyberbullied victim Megan Meier, the Missouri school girl who hanged herself in response. US Attorney Thomas O'Brien, also known for his efforts to prosecute botnet criminals, led efforts by the Los Angeles federal Grand Jury to indict Ms. Drew for one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress.
There were issues from the beginning of the case in getting local law enforcement engaged to pursue justice for poor Megan. Despite the opinion of experts such as Parry Aftab that existing laws provided sufficient grounds for going after Ms. Drew and her co-conspirators, Missouri law enforcement felt they couldn't proceed. The key to the current indictments is the tying of MySpace, a California corporation to the injured parties, therefore giving the case broader jurisdiction. The SF Chronicle has a timeline of events that should explain this better than I can.
Original posting date: Thursday, May 15, 2008 | 2:00 PM