(MIKE’S COMMENT: This decision might not be a popular one, but it’s the correct legal decision. Lori Drew was prosecuted for violating the MySpace terms of service agreement, not for cyberbullying Megan Meier. There might be a need for a law to address what Lori Drew did, but this prosecution was never the answer.)
By LINDA DEUTSCH
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES | A judge has finalized his decision to throw out convictions of a Missouri mother for her role in an Internet hoax directed at a 13-year-old neighbor girl who committed suicide.
U.S. District Judge George Wu said in his written ruling that the case was never a legal test of crimes involving “cyberbullying.”
Prosecutors, who adopted that terminology early on, brought charges against Lori Drew under the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Statute which does not involve cyberbullying, the judge said.
Wu acquitted Drew of misdemeanor counts of accessing computers without authorization last month but stressed the ruling was tentative until he issued it in writing.