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Very well then, Mr. Blaze. While I'm at harmony with your right to a respectable position of thought, your language has dislodged me. Perhaps I should return to my previous screen name. Gilbert is injured after all.
I believe common perception on this board would have skewed my otherwise acceptable assertion. I have been branded previously as an idiot. I did not want that taggery to accompany this discussion on a sad issue.
Very well then, Mr. Blaze. While I'm at harmony with your right to a respectable position of thought, your language has dislodged me. Perhaps I should return to my previous screen name. Gilbert is injured after all.
Nevermind.
Funny, I almost bought an Arenas jersey shirt earlier today.
Truly sad.....
http://www.abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/sto...3946124&page=1
No Charges in MySpace Suicide
Prosecutor Says He Will Not File Charges Against Those Accused of Harassing Teen
By SCOTT MICHELS
Dec. 3, 2007—
Prosecutors said they would not file charges against the people who used the Internet to send bullying messages to a 13-year-old Minnesota girl shortly before she killed herself.
Jack Banas, the St. Charles County prosecutor, said no laws were broken in connection with the death of Megan Meier, who hanged herself last year inside her parents' Dardenne Prairie, Minn., home.
Ron and Tina Meier have said their daughter's death was the result of the rapid decline of her online relationship with a person she believed to be a boy named "Josh Evans," who first flattered the self-conscious girl and then taunted her.
"I'm disappointed that there's going to be no prosecution," Tina Meier told ABC News on Monday. "There deserves to be criminal charges here."
In a police report filed last year, the Meiers' neighbor, Lori Drew, said she and an 18-year-old employee created a fake MySpace profile for Josh Evans so she could monitor what Megan Meier was saying about Drew's daughter.
Monday, the prosecutor said in a written statement that the 18-year-old, identified only as Ashley, admitted that she created the fake MySpace account, though the extent of Drew's involvement was disputed. Banas told ABC News that the police report overstated Drew's involvement in the incident.
He said he could not interview Ashley because she was getting psychiatric treatment related to her role in Meier's death, according to a local newspaper report.
Though Banas considered filing charges for harassment, stalking or endangering the welfare of a child, he said it appeared no laws had been broken.
Since the purpose of the fake MySpace page was to find out what Megan was saying about Drew's daughter, Banas could not charge Drew with harassment or stalking, which require proof that the messages were sent with the purpose of frightening, disturbing or harassing.
"The purpose was never to cause her emotional harassment, that we can prove," Banas said.
Megan's parents claim Drew knew that Megan was on medication for depression, which Drew disputes. Even so, Banas said, there would not be enough evidence to charge anyone with child endangerment, which requires proof that the messages sent from "Josh" created a substantial risk to Megan's life or health.
"There's no way anybody could know that talking to someone or saying that you're mean to your friends on the Internet would create a substantial risk," Banas said. "It certainly created a potential risk, and unfortunately for the Meiers, that potential became reality."
Megan, who sometimes suffered from low self-esteem and depression, was elated when she got an e-mail on the social networking site MySpace from a cute boy named "Josh," her parents said. Josh claimed to be a 16-year-old boy who lived nearby. He said he was home-schooled and didn't yet have a phone.
The two developed a virtual friendship that lasted more than a month before things inexplicably took a downward turn. "Megan gets an e-mail, or a message from Josh on her MySpace Oct. 15, 2006, saying, 'I don't know if I want to be friends with you any longer because I hear you're not nice to your friends,'" Tina Meier said on "GMA."
According to Banas, a friend of Drew's daughter had gained access to the MySpace account and sent those messages. The next day, Ashley, posing as Josh, got into an argument with Megan online that ended with Josh saying that the world would be better off without Megan.
Megan hanged herself that day.
Six weeks later, the Meiers learned from a neighbor that Josh Evans never existed.
In an interview with "Good Morning America," the neighbor who first tipped off police about Drew's involvement said that Drew confessed to her that she had played a hoax on Megan.
"She did sit here in my living room and confess everything to me. She told me that they had pulled an image of a boy off the Internet, and that they had created an account using the name of Josh Evans, and she said she knew the last message that left her house that Monday when Megan attempted to take her life was that 'the world would be a better place without you,'" said the neighbor, who asked that her iden y not be revealed.
According to Banas, Drew said she was not home when the final exchange between Megan and Josh took place. Ashley told a lawyer for the Meiers that Drew was there, but later recanted in an interview with the FBI, according to Banas.
"Mr. and Mrs. Drew deny that they knew anything about the final message that went out," Banas said.
"I don't think anyone ever dreamed this little girl would react the way she did," he said.
Though Drew will not be charged with a crime, Megan's death attracted an enormous amount of publicity in recent weeks, particularly after Tina and Ron Meier appeared on "Good Morning America" and the "Today" show" last month. The publicity drew public outrage against Drew, and Meier's parents have demanded she be jailed.
Bloggers have posted the Drews' address and phone number online, and people have thrown rocks through their window and left threatening messages, according to local police.
The local town council recently passed a law that would make the type of bullying that took place in Meier's case a misdemeanor, and some state legislators have called for similar changes in state law.
Meier said she would continue to lobby for new laws to address cyberbullying.
"Words absolutely mean more than just hurting somebody's feelings," she said.
Copyright © 2007 ABC News Internet Ventures
Wow
Lori Drew was behind http://meganhaditcoming.blogspot.com/
And she's putting all the blame on Megan. Unreal.
Wow---read the comments. She's commenting back to people and...just wow.
That's awesome. You could tell that that site was done by an adult. I never would have guessed she was behind the site, though.
How stupid can she be?
This morning on the Today Show, Ms. Drew's lawyer said that this girl Ashley, who allegedly created the profile & is now in a psychiatric hospital, was an employee of Ms. Drew.
This whole thing blows my mind. Ms. Drew should be charged with something, even if it's minor so that she could at least be required to attend parenting classes.
This woman is the biggest narcissist outside of Betty Broderick. In the comments, she still won't accept any of the blame and can't understand why people won't listen to her.
I can't read anymore of this. There are quite a few comments that are civil and balanced, and Lori will have none of it. She did no wrong.
She still blames Megan for making her do what she did. Unbelievable.
I was just coming to post the same thing...I had to stop reading. She's blamed everyone but herself.
Is it just me, or does it seem like this Lori Drew person is posting opinions under different names that support her view point and then commenting back on them ??? As if to make it seem like people do support her!!!
Someone called her out on that--which she ignored.
On second thought, I doubt that's really her.
All of you stop.
There's no way Lori Drew could have seen that a child with a mental illness might respond in an irrational way.
I'm sure the blog is the creation of some other sick 47 year old person with nothing to do but stir up things on the internet.
The internet is evil. Damn evil.
Seriously. It's not like she can tell the future or anything. Geeeeeez.
She was just protecting her little angel from the 13 year old monster next door. Any parent would have done the same thing.
Helicopter Mom gone wrong - summarizes it perfectly, IMO.
...
The internet is not evil, people are evil.
Its a shame we don't live near her.
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