Lori Drew MySpace Suicide Hoax Conviction Thrown Out

A federal judge Thursday tentatively threw out computer fraud convictions against Lori Drew, the Missouri mom accused of taking part in a MySpace hoax blamed for the suicide of a 13-year-old neighbor girl.

Drew was convicted in November 2008 of three misdemeanor counts of unauthorized access to computers for violating MySpace's terms of service. U.S. District Judge George Wu said the dismissal of the convictions would be final when he issues the ruling in writing.

Drew had faced up to three years in prison and a $300,000 fine for what prosecutors described as a "scheme to humiliate" 13-year-old Megan Meier, Drew's former neighbor in a St. Louis suburb, by helping to create a MySpace profile for a fictitious teenage boy named "Josh Evans."

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Drew, with her own teenage daughter and a business assistant, Ashley Grills, used the fake profile to flirt with, befriend and then abandon Meier, leading Meier to hang herself, prosecutors contend. Drew has denied more than passing knowledge of the fake account, and Grills and Drew's daughter were never charged.

The judge said that if Drew is to be found guilty of illegally accessing computers, anyone who has ever violated the social networking site's terms of service would be guilty of a misdemeanor, the Associated Press reported.

Legal observers were closely watching the case, thought to have far-reaching implications for the prosecution of so-called "cyberbullying."

Federal prosecutors charged Drew under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which bans unauthorized access to computers and has previously been used to combat computer hacking. Drew's lawyers and outside legal experts have argued that the unusual prosecution could broaden the scope of what's considered criminal conduct on the Internet.

Though Meier's suicide was the impetus for the case, Drew was never directly charged with the girl's death.

Drew had been acquitted of more serious felony charges of intentionally causing emotional harm while accessing computers without authorization. She was charged in Los Angeles because MySpace's computer servers are based there.