No charges to be filed in MySpace Suicide Case
The prosecutor has stated that there will be no charges filed in the Megan Meier MySpace Suicide case. The reason for the no prosecution decision is that there is not enough evidence to take this to court. Beyond the moral issues here, legally and criminally no laws were violated, meaning there will be no case at all.
While Banas made no excuses for the adult Drew’s role in the childish ruse, he said that no charges will be filed because neither Drew nor Grills had created the fake MySpace account with the intent to harm, stalk, harass or endganger Meier, but simply to find out what Meier was saying online about Drew’s own daughter. Banas said that the case has highlighted problems with state harassment laws that don’t address harassment over the internet. He’s been talking with state lawmakers about how to close that loophole. Source: Wired
The interesting side of this is the intent issue, while things might have gotten out of control, there really is no reason why a reasonable adult would have done this at all. While intent is one thing, there is a “reasonable person” test here that was failed. That really is the core issue, there are a great many number of people who could not even envision something like this happening, or being party to it. In this case a small group of people had an enormous influence on a single person, and a family.
The other issue then falls into the internet vigilantes that have also tried to do harm to Lori Drew and her family. As the internet violence increases and goes into real life, there are considerations here on that whole idea of “intent” and “reasonable person”. To read the rest of the St. Charles Prosecutors statement, please go here.
Interesting bit of case law, it will be interesting to see what laws change because of this one.
I think that there is the bigger issue that nobody is focusing on. The kid was suicidal before the online attack, and the parents don’t want to take responsibility for their son’s actions.
I don’t think that anyone lost sight of that, but really, picking on a teenager is like shooting fish in a barrel and about as much fun, it is too easy. I don’t think that anyone has forgotten about the disposition, but as an adult, she should have known better, and her story keeps on changing, not a good thing, any way you slice or dice this one.