The trial of a Missouri woman charged in a tragic MySpace hoax resumed Thursday. Testimony began Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in the controversial trial of Lori Drew, who is charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of computer fraud.
The charges stem from her alleged participation in a MySpace hoax which may have caused the suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier. Drew is being tried under the Computer Abuse and Fraud Act.
Tina Meier, Megan’s mother, took the stand on the first day of the trial. She told the court her daughter, who was battling depression and had attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, took her own life after reading a message from a fictitious boy on the social-networking site named Josh Evans, according to the Associated Press.
“Josh Evans” was not who he said he was for the six weeks he and Meier communicated on MySpace.com. Instead, he was a fictitious person allegedly created by Lori Drew, her then-13-year-old daughter, and her then-18-year-old personal assistant, Ashley Grills.
The case involving Drew has drawn much attention from families in the Missouri town where Drew and Meier live and across the nation as families learned about the cyberbullying that may have caused Meier to hang herself in her bedroom closet.
Attorneys for Drew and the judge have made it very clear that Drew is not on trial for homicide. Drew, however, faces charges that she broke MySpace’s terms, which prohibit users from creating false identities. The case is being tried in California, where MySpace’s servers are located.
Grills admitted on live television that she created the online account, but added that Drew and her daughter participated in the six-week-long ruse.
As a result of Meier’s suicide, Missouri has passed a cyberbullying law. That law defines harassment as knowingly communicating with another person…