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Defense will try to derail cyber-bullying case
A federal judge in Los Angeles could decide Thursday whether to allow use of an untested legal theory to prosecute a woman accused of helping cyber-bully a St. Louis area teen who killed herself.
The pre-trial hearing is a chance for Lori Drew's defense lawyers to try to derail the case short of trial.
Prosecutors say Drew and others schemed in 2006 to humiliate Megan Meier, 13, using a faked teenage boy's identity on the social networking site MySpace. The plan was so "effective and pernicious that the girl committed suicide," the U.S. attorney's office said in court filings.
The Meier and Drew families were neighbors, and their daughters had once been friends.
St. Charles County and St. Louis federal prosecutors studied the case and decided no criminal charges applied. But federal prosecutors in Los Angeles, the area where MySpace is based, obtained an indictment in May under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which has previously been used against computer hackers. It charges Lori Drew with one count of conspiracy and three counts of illegally accessing protected computers.
U.S. District George Wu is scheduled to hear motions in the case.
Law professors and online free speech and privacy rights groups have filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the defense.
Prosecutors and Drew's lawyer, H. Dean Steward, have declined to comment in recent months, but made their positions known in court filings.
Steward claims the charges are unconstitutionally vague and legally flawed. He argues that while the law prohibits unauthorized access to a protected computer, it doesn't define "unauthorized" or "access."
He also said whoever set up the MySpace account may not have been aware of the terms of service, which prohibit lying when registering, soliciting information from someone under 18 or harassing or abusing other users.
The professors and advocates go on to say that the prosecutors' novel approach would criminalize something millions have done, including people trying to "exercise their First Amendment rights to speak anonymously online."
The statute bans certain conduct, not speech, prosecutors say, so the First Amendment is not at issue.
"It's doubtful that 'millions' of computer users intentionally violate terms of service to humiliate children," the filings say.
___
© 2008, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Visit the Post-Dispatch on the World Wide Web at http://www.stltoday.com/
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
The Meier and Drew families were neighbors, and their daughters had once been friends.
St. Charles County and St. Louis federal prosecutors studied the case and decided no criminal charges applied. But federal prosecutors in Los Angeles, the area where MySpace is based, obtained an indictment in May under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which has previously been used against computer hackers. It charges Lori Drew with one count of conspiracy and three counts of illegally accessing protected computers.
U.S. District George Wu is scheduled to hear motions in the case.
Law professors and online free speech and privacy rights groups have filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the defense.
Prosecutors and Drew's lawyer, H. Dean Steward, have declined to comment in recent months, but made their positions known in court filings.
Steward claims the charges are unconstitutionally vague and legally flawed. He argues that while the law prohibits unauthorized access to a protected computer, it doesn't define "unauthorized" or "access."
He also said whoever set up the MySpace account may not have been aware of the terms of service, which prohibit lying when registering, soliciting information from someone under 18 or harassing or abusing other users.
The professors and advocates go on to say that the prosecutors' novel approach would criminalize something millions have done, including people trying to "exercise their First Amendment rights to speak anonymously online."
The statute bans certain conduct, not speech, prosecutors say, so the First Amendment is not at issue.
"It's doubtful that 'millions' of computer users intentionally violate terms of service to humiliate children," the filings say.
___
© 2008, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Visit the Post-Dispatch on the World Wide Web at http://www.stltoday.com/
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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