Megan Meier Myspace Suicide: Subpoenas Heat up Cyber Battle Once Again

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Megan Meier Myspace Suicide: Subpoenas Heat up Cyber Battle Once Again

The Megan Meier MySpace Suicide story is heating back up again.

This time, it's fueled by subpoenas issued by a Los Angeles grand jury in the case and an appearance on Dr. Phil by Tina Meier and others.

The Megan Meier story, as anyone who's covered it knows, has had more twists and turns than a TV movie.

For a list of over 40 stories and videos by DBKP on the story since it broke on the Internet, see the Megan Meier MySpace Suicide Library. It begins with the first retelling of the original story by Steve Pokin, of the Suburban Journals until present day.

It follows the story of Megan Meier, her parents, Ron and Tina Meier, their neighbor, Lori Drew, the statements by Drew and her attorney, Jim Briscoe and others.

It also details the creation of the "Megan Had it Coming" blog, supposedly a creation of Drew, but in reality, the clever device of an Internet "troll".

It's last story was one chronicling the 'Increasing Victimization of Lori Drew' in the Mainstream Media.

NOT included is DBKP's last conversation with Drew's attorney, Jim Briscoe. That story was slated to go out with some other updates later this week.

Current events have caught up with us, however. That article will be coming out later today now.

Back to the subpoenas. From the LA Times:

In a novel approach, prosecutors are looking at charging a woman who posed as a boy and sent cruel messages to teen with defrauding MySpace.

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles has begun issuing subpoenas in the case of a Missouri teenager who hanged herself after being rejected by the person she thought was a 16-year-old boy she met on MySpace, sources told The Times.

The case set off a national furor when it was revealed that the "boyfriend" was really a neighbor who was the mother of one of the girl's former friends.

Local and federal authorities in Missouri looked into the circumstances surrounding 13-year-old Megan Meier's 2006 death in the town of Dardenne Prairie, an upper-middle-class enclave of about 7,400 people, located northwest of St. Louis.

But after months of investigation, no charges were filed against Lori Drew for her alleged role in the hoax. Prosecutors in Missouri said they were unable to find a statute under which to pursue a criminal case.

Prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, however, are exploring the possibility of charging Drew with defrauding the MySpace social networking website by allegedly creating the false account, according to the sources, who insisted on anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

The sources said prosecutors are looking at federal wire fraud and cyber fraud statutes as they consider the case. Prosecutors believe they have jurisdiction because MySpace is headquartered in Beverly Hills, the sources said.

It's still unclear who created the fictitious account. In a police report, Drew told authorities she, with the aid of a temporary employee, "instigated and monitored" a fake profile prior to Megan's suicide, "for the sole purpose of communicating" with the girl and to see what the girl was saying about Drew's daughter.

DBKP's Trench Reynolds had this to say.

Authorities in Missouri could not find anything to charge Lori Drew with but the U.S. prosecutors in L.A. have taken a different approach. They’re thinking of charging Lori Drew with fraud for creating the fake MySpace. And why is this happening in L.A. you ask.

The prosecutors believe they have jurisdiction because MySpace — the would-be victim — is based in Beverly Hills, the sources said.

The subpoenas were issued to MySpace and what the article says are “witnesses in the case.”

Here’s hoping that there can be some modicum of justice for Megan Meier.

Commenting on the Dr. Phil aspect, blogger Danny Vice had this to offer.

I've watched many news interviews on this case and at this point I'd have to say Dr. Phil really did the best job of covering the issues and legal dynamics of the case in comparison to any news report I've seen on this case to date.

The show certainly gained unprecedented access into the Meier's home, where the show was able to capture quite a bit of footage of the Meier home, the neighborhood and a fresh glimpse of the Drew family's home. (The camera man must have had his moxy on that day)

As was previously stated, a much more comprehensive article on the Megan Meier developments will appear later this afternoon.

We're waiting on new comments from Lori Drew's attorney, Jim Briscoe, as well as some comments from other sources.

As always with anything involving this case, it should prove interesting.

Megan Meier MySpace DBKP Suicide Library

A complete listing of over 40 DBKP articles and videos on the Megan Meier MySpace Suicide story.