MySpace hoax jury may not hear about suicide

MySpace hoax jury may not hear about suicide

www.cnn.com

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Prosecutors in the trial of a woman accused of a MySpace hoax that allegedly led a 13-year-old girl to kill herself will likely be prohibited from presenting evidence of the suicide, a federal judge said Monday.


Megan Meier, 13, hanged herself in her bedroom after being targeted in a MySpace hoax.

1 of 2 U.S. District Judge George H. Wu told attorneys he was leaning toward excluding the evidence from the trial of Lori Drew, who is accused of using a fictitious profile on the social networking site to drive Megan Meier, her daughter's former friend, to hang herself.

Drew has pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing computers without authorization.

"I don't necessarily think the suicide is relevant to the crime charged," Wu said, adding he thought details of Meier's death would unfairly prejudice the jury. He said he planned to announce his final decision Friday.

Prosecutors say Drew, 49, of O'Fallon, Missouri, helped create a false-identity MySpace account and harassed Meier with cruel messages.

Meier, who was being treated for depression, hanged herself after allegedly receiving messages saying the world would be better off without her.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I'm going to have to imagine 1 of 4 scenarios here
a. The woman was friends with the young girl and they were bolth depressed, maybe the woman hadn't been treated for it
b. the young girl had said something of a hateful magnitude to the woman prior to this conversation
c. the young girl was hung by a third party who thought the message would help make it look like a suicide
d. this didn't really happen and it was made up so we could talk about it on a conspiracy website

www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

He doesn't think the suicide is relevant?? Wow. The words I want to respond with aren't allowed on this board. This is a case of an adult vs. a child. The adult should be punished worse than if she had done this to another adult.

i think the mother took the fall for her daughter. it does't make sense, for a 49 year old woman to do this. if she did, she obviously is mentally disturbed.

Hey alora, before you talk smack you should read the link i posted because it only contains about half the story justgeneric introduced. I do agree that what this woman did was disturbing but that doesn't mean a depressed person committing suicide is a direct result of one cruel comment.

Originally posted by mls11.11
Hey alora, before you talk smack you should read the link i posted because it only contains about half the story justgeneric introduced. I do agree that what this woman did was disturbing but that doesn't mean a depressed person committing suicide is a direct result of one cruel comment.

Alora was talking smack about the lawyer, not you. But speaking of telling people to read. Perhaps you can read one of the many many many many articles on this or other threads on this that would answer all of your *snip* questions before you hypothesize. Going on with crazy theories that would be easily dismissed by simply READING about the case and then yelling at someone else to try reading because you missunderstood their post is not exactly going to win you alot of the types of responses I think you are hoping for here.



Mod Edit: No need for the snarky personalised comments. Please keep it civil - cheers.



[edit on 10-11-2008 by alien]

you got me on the lawyer part, but i don't see how that is significant.
what questions were stupid and how?
how is it possible to yell on the internet?

Originally posted by mls11.11
you got me on the lawyer part, but i don't see how that is significant.
what questions were stupid and how?
how is it possible to yell on the internet?

Hmmmmmmmm, how is a history of filing FRAUDULENT cases relevant????

I wonder. You called him a good lawyer right? Well, if you decide he is "good" based on NOTHING. Then what else are you simply saying based on nothing? What else are you believing for no good reason.

See the relevence yet?

Mixing me up with the lawyer is irrelevant to my argument, this isn't about the lawyer it is about a situation involving a suicide. the only thing i am believing for no reason is that you are taking any conspiracy theory into consideration and not just here to insult people that are trying to make a point to help society better itself. If you can explain to me how putting a woman in prison for a practical joke turned into a brain chemical catastrophy has anything to do with good reason please continue otherwise i refuse to try and comprehend your insults.

reply to post by mls11.11


Do you really think that an adult woman who thinks it would benefit anyone to make a fake person up, pretend to fall in love with a naive young girl and then tear here up all over the internet deserves to run around free using such good judgement all over town?

maybe it wasn't a practical joke, but to sit here and critisize me for making a conspiracy theory on a conspiracy theory website using degrading words as points of argument isn't sensible or logical, its called fascism. You are invading my topic, telling me that i am not intelligent without any reasons. All of your arguments have no links to what i am talking about, i never mentioned him being a good lawyer, wether a defendants lawyer is good or not has nothing to do with there case, and i have no reason nor should there be any logical reason for that to have anything to do with the individual being prosecuted. You can't blame a suicide on a bully, not a hanging, you can only blame the actual MURDERER. My grandfather commited suicide, if you ask me, he is a murderer, if evidence shows up that someone killed him that would be a different story, but yup my own family member, i'm not blaming anyone else, he is a murderer.

reply to post by mls11.11


Then quit harping on the lawyer. Seriously, what is your point? That what this woman did was an innocent mistake? She should get a good talking to and that's it? Where are you going exactly? The reason I ask is because all of your conspiracy theories are easily dismissed by simply reading the facts of the case. If you are too lazy to do the most basic research about your topic before proposing these outlandish ideas, then why should anyone take them seriously? Read about the case and then come back with your theories about why this poor woman should not be punished. Perhaps you can be the one to explain it to the dead girl's family.

She did not use good judgement, i never said she used good judgement. Obviously she didn't because the girl killed herself. However, I do not believe that when she did this she knew that the girl was going to commit suicide, that is like saying a video game made that 8 year old boy in arizona kill his father and fathers friend. You can not blame a video game on a real life murder, just like you can not say telling someone to kill themself will result in them killing themself. You can however march your butt to the video game headquarters and jam up the entire operation if you are that motivated.

i don't know what alternate reality exists where people kill themselves because someone suggested it, infact i have been diagnosed with depression, people have told me to kill myself, and the last thing on my mind was to hang myself. This girl obviously had a little more going on then just depression to kill herself over a guy she was talking to online. I've had people tell me they want to kill my entire family and me and then piss on my grave and i still don't have one drop of suicidal thoughts, so tell me how i, who have been arrested into a psychiatric ward for giving away money at a gas station and preaching about god, am any different?

reply to post by mls11.11


It is this reality where we live. Of course this girl must have had some issues to be so easily swayed. Does that really mean this crazy mom should not have known better? A 6 year old hung himself in a closet a few years ago, then an 8 year old shot himself, AFTER leaving a note. Do you think that these kids fully understood what they were doing? Do you think that they had issues that needed attention? Do you think that if one of these kids was just borderline, it would be ok for an enemies parent to taunt them over the edge? So, you are depressed. Go to group therapy and learn that not everyone is like you, get some empathy, and understand that young teenagers do not always think things through all the way.

On second thought, if you really want to try and find a reason why this lady did nothing wrong, then have at it. I am sure she is a fine lady. From everything I have read, I am sure you would want your kids hanging out at her house. I hope you prove she does not deserve jail time and is free to continue to be the model citizen she has proven to be so far. Again, I will point you in the direction of the victim's family. I am sure they can tell you what amazing contributions to society this woman will regail us with once she is set free at last!

Keep up the good fight. That 14 yr old girl had it coming anyway right!

[edit on 11-11-2008 by angel of lightangelo]

Please, the article states "Drew has pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing computers without authorization."

They have no REAL evidence that the mom caused the girl to hang herself, only that the mom impersonated someone. Some people are getting way too emotional here(for whatever reason), and I belive thats why the judge is right in what he's doing. Heck look at "angel of lightangelo", they conjured up memories of a an eight year old shooting themselves and a six year old hanging themselves...which have nothing to do with this case or the situations leading up to this case.

i'm sorry, i can not allow myself to promote suicide, genocide, or anything relative to it. I'm not gonna sit here and agree that people should kill people just because someone else tells them to and fabricates a story that i could imagine hitler reciting, if i thought that were acceptable i don't believe i would be able to live with myself. I'm sorry if you are one of those who believe in healing people by killing or some sort of imaginary greater good that is actually just killing people for nothing more then being either unknowlegable, beligerant, or mistreated by society but i simply do not, and i will not tolerate it. I'm sorry if your family consists of people who think suicide is a way out, but i would rather live with the pain and make an honest effort to explain exactly what is bothering me. You are not gonna convince me that this woman wanted or deserves to be forced into a prison gang, raped, beaten, stabbed, tortured, belittled and a list of other things because someone was depressed that they couldn't be with an imaginary boy on the internet, i feel sad for her family, i truly do, but unfortunately there is nothing you can do for someone who does not want to live, and it is not an excuse to abuse a person, there is no excuse to put someone in prison. I am anti holocaust and anti prison, because in my opinion, (which atleast %90 of humanity agrees on) prison is not a good method for fixing a mistake, you can't fix something wrong by making more of a mess. If you believe in torturing people for a crime which is not even 100 percent certain, then you have 100 percent of my disapproval.

Originally posted by mls11.11
Hey alora, before you talk smack you should read the link i posted because it only contains about half the story justgeneric introduced. I do agree that what this woman did was disturbing but that doesn't mean a depressed person committing suicide is a direct result of one cruel comment.

As Angel explained, I was referring to the lawyer, not you.

And who here was a stable and well balanced 13 year old? Again-- an adult did a horrible and intentionally cruel thing to a child and should be punished extensively for it. The mother was supposed to be the mature one, she should have taught her daughter how to deal with tough situations. Instead, she chose to harass a 13 year old child, assuming to be "cool" with her daughter and to be her friend rather than the voice of reason.

There is no reason to go lightly on her, there is no reason not to hurl the book at this woman and let her rot.

reply to post by mls11.11


Just because you do not think people should kill themselves just because they were told to, does not mean it does not happen. I do not think there should ever be war, it makes no sense at all. Did all the wars stop yet? I really believe what I believe? Why did it not work?

OF course there is more to it than one person suggesting suicide and another following through. Perhaps if you read up on the case, you will see that it is far more complicated than that. The mother went to great efforts to hurt and emotionally abuse this young girl. She hurt and humilated her and did it on the web for everyone to see. You do not think that is a big deal to a 13 year old? This is not even the first case like this. You take a depressed or emotionally unstable kid and then mess with their head in incredibly embarassing and hurtful ways and it is not your fault if it ends in their suicide?

Get real. You have a belief and that is fine. Unfortunately you are showing great ignorance over the exact details of this case as well as the mental stability of your average 13 year old girl in today's America.

How about you prove your point by providing us with a list of people that have commited suicide for reasons that you think DO make sense. If this is not why someone would kill themself because that is just crazy talk, then what rational reasons for teen suicide are their? Don't even try the euthanasia card either because you know that is not what we are talking about. Give me all the good reasons that 13 year old girls and boys kill themselves.

reply to post by LordBaskettIV


Yeah, um...no.