A Missouri woman was indicted today on federal fraud and conspiracy charges for her alleged role in orchestrating a cruel MySpace hoax against a teenage girl who later committed suicide. Lori Drew, 49, was named in an indictment handed up today in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles (a copy of the indictment can be found below). According to prosecutors, Drew created a fake MySpace page as a ruse to determine whether Megan Meier, 13, was making derogatory remarks about her daughter, with whom Neier was fueding. The MySpace page was purportedly that of "Josh Evans," a 16-year-old boy who had taken a liking to Meier (the late girl is identified in the indictment only by her initials, M.T.M.). Posing as "Evans," Drew and her unnamed co-conspirators, investigators allege, frequently corresponded with Meier, inviting the child at one point to touch the "snake" of "Evans." On October 16, 2006, "Evans" told Meier "in substance, that the world would be a better place without M.T.M in it." Later that day, Meier hanged herself in a closet at her family's O'Fallon, Missouri home. When Drew learned of the suicide, the indictment charges, she caused the fake MySpace page to be deleted and directed a juvenile who knew of the hoax to "keep her mouth shut." A key witness in the federal probe was Ashley Grills, 19, who has admitted to helping Drew set up and maintain the phony MySpace account.
The key witness in the Megan Meier case is a 19-year-old woman who has admitted setting up a fake MySpace page at the direction of a Missouri woman who sought to secretly determine whether Meier was "saying bad things" about her daughter. Ashley Grills, 19, testified earlier this year before a Los Angeles grand jury probing the circumstances leading to the 13-year-old Meier's suicide in November 2006. A month after Megan's death, Grills was interviewed by investigators working for the Meier family and provided a chilling behind-the-scenes account of the cruel MySpace hoax, which Grills said was hatched by 49-year-old Lori Drew. Grills, pictured at right, reported that Drew's daughter Sarah had a falling out with Meier and that "Lori wanted to set the page up to find out whether Megan had been saying bad things about Sarah." In her interview, which was memorialized in the below report prepared by the Meier investigators, Grills said she felt "deep remorse" for her role in the hoax. Grills reportedly received immunity in return for her testimony before the federal grand jury, which is expected today to hand up an indictment in the Meier probe.
Federal prosecutors today are expected to announce criminal charges in the "cyber-bullying" case involving Megan Meier, the 13-year-old Missouri girl who committed suicide following a heartless online hoax engineered by the mother of one of her friends. FBI and Department of Justice officials have scheduled an 11:30 AM press conference in Los Angeles to detail an anticipated indictment in the Meier case. The Missouri teenager became despondent after a boy she met via MySpace viciously turned on her, accusing the girl of promiscuity. The boy also wrote that the world would be better off without her. Meier hanged herself in a closet in her home in November 2006. A subsequent probe by the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department determined that Megan's online friend "Josh Evans" was, in fact, the creation of a local family seeking to determine whether Megan was saying derogatory things about their daughter. The adult behind the MySpace ruse--and the apparent target of federal probers--was Lori Drew, whose daughter had been friends with Megan, who is pictured at right. On the following pages you'll find the original sheriff's report on the case and the incident report on the teenager's suicide. Following Megan's death, Drew, 49, and her husband Curt sent the Meiers a handwritten note saying they had "every compassion" for the Meier family and asked for a chance to talk to them. Tina Meier, Megan's mother, told TSG today that she did not testify before the L.A. grand jury probing the hoax, though she was interviewed in St. Louis by Mark Krause, the federal prosecutor heading the investigation. While the Drew and Meier families live in Missouri, the probe has been handled by federal investigators in L.A. since MySpace is headquartered in Beverly Hills. According to prior press reports, prosecutors were examining wire and cyber fraud counts in connection with the Meier hoax.--------------------------
Lori Drew faces a maximum of 20 years if she is convicted of perpetrating the MySpace hoax that ended with 13-year-old Megan Meier committing suicide. But Megan’s mother, Tina Meier, thinks that’s not nearly enough.
“Twenty years to me is just a small piece of cake,” Meier told TODAY’s Meredith Vieira on Friday. “Lori Drew should truly be given a life sentence.”
Meier’s reaction came a day after federal prosecutors in Los Angeles, where MySpace is headquartered, announced that a grand jury had indicted Drew on one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress on Megan Meier. Drew and Meier are neighbors in a suburban St. Louis subdivision.
Meier’s daughter Megan was just short of her 14th birthday when she hanged herself in her closet in October 2006 after being victimized by the hoax on MySpace. Prosecutors allege that Drew, 49, created a fictitious MySpace account for a boy named “Josh Evans” after Megan and Drew’s daughter, who had been friends, had a falling out. The fictitious boy made friends with Megan, who had battled ADD and depression and had entertained thoughts of suicide several years earlier.
When “Josh” suddenly turned on Megan and told her “the world would be better off without you,” she took her own life.
A lack of laws
Ever since her daughter’s death, Tina Meier has been battling to have Drew charged with a crime, but local prosecutors in St. Charles County, where Meier and Drew live, determined that Missouri had no laws that could be applied to the situation. Federal prosecutors in Missouri also declined to indict Drew.
But prosecutors in Los Angeles determined that Meier could be charged there because MySpace’s servers are located there.
“I’m hoping she gets the maximum penalty,” Meier told Vieira. “That’s what she deserves. Lori Drew played a ridiculous, childish game, and that’s exactly what it was. She probably didn’t know the outcome of what exactly happened with Meghan, but when you play games on the Internet — an adult playing with a child, playing with her mind — these are the things that can happen, and she needs to face the consequences.”
Parry Aftab, an attorney and Internet security consultant who is working with Meier on programs to combat cyberbullying, applauded the indictment.
“We need to make sure that Lori Drew faces a jury of her peers, because she’s admitted in police documents she set this up and she did it and why she did it,” Aftab said. “I’m not sure how someone’s going to defend this case, but all of us really need to hear the facts and know that parents can’t do this to other people’s kids.”
The accused denies
Drew’s attorney, Dean Steward, said in a separate interview that his client denies creating the account and sending messages to Megan. He also said he is disappointed that his client was charged in California after Missouri prosecutors declined to press charges.
“For the U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles to now issue these charges is disappointing, puzzling,” he said.
“Do you feel there is misinformation out there regarding your client?” Vieira asked.
“Absolutely,” Steward replied. “We’re looking forward to presenting the truth, what really happened, to a jury of 12 people in L.A.”
Meier has said repeatedly that Drew has never apologized to her or expressed remorse for what happened.
“The entire Drew family and everybody connected with this case is deeply saddened by what happened,” Steward said. “It’s a terrible, terrible tragedy. Everybody agrees with that. In terms of reaction from my client, that’s something we need to save for a courtroom.”
A trial date will be set when Drew is arraigned in early June.
The ‘Megan Pledge’
Since her daughter’s death, Tina Meier has become a campaigner for stronger laws to protect children from cyberbullying and has established the Megan Meier Foundation to help educate kids about cyberbullying.
She’s worked closely with attorney Parry Aftab, the executive director of StopCyberbullying.org and the founder of wiredsafety.org. Together, they have organized a campaign to get a million children this year to sign the “Megan Pledge” to end cyberbullying. Kids can sign the pledge online at myyearbook.com.
Aftab said that 85 percent of middle-school students surveyed reported being cyberbullied, but only 5 percent of that number told their parents about it.
“MySpace is trying to work on these issues, but it’s a challenge, it really is,” she told Vieira. “When you have adults doing this, what’s a Web site supposed to do?”
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