LOS ANGELES — An attorney for a woman convicted in a MySpace hoax directed at a teen who ended up committing suicide asked a judge to dismiss her convictions Thursday, saying a computer-fraud law was improperly used to prosecute her.
U.S. District Court Judge George Wu did not immediately rule after oral arguments and will likely issue a written decision, although he didn't indicate when. He did set an April 30 sentencing date for Lori Drew, who was not present.
Drew was found guilty in November of three misdemeanor counts of accessing computers without authorization. Prosecutors said the Missouri woman violated MySpace service rules by helping create a fictitious teen boy on the social networking site and sent flirtatious messages from him to 13-year-old neighbor Megan Meier, a former friend of Drew's daughter.
The fake boy then dumped Megan in a message saying the world would be better without her. She soon hanged herself.
The case hinged on an unprecedented application of computer-fraud law. Drew was not directly charged with causing Megan's death, but she was indicted under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which in the past has been used in hacking and trademark theft cases.
Defense attorney Orin Kerr argued that it's not a crime to violate a Web site's service terms under current law.
"The question here is: What is the proper reading of the statute?" asked Kerr. "Reading the law, there is insufficient evidence to find someone guilty of a misdemeanor."
If Wu grants the defense motion, he would set aside the jury's verdict and enter a judgment of acquittal.
Jurors found Drew was not guilty of the more serious felonies of intentionally causing emotional harm while accessing computers without authorization and couldn't reach a unanimous verdict on a felony conspiracy charge.
Prosecutors want Wu to dismiss the conspiracy charge "in the interests of justice," according to court documents, but didn't elaborate. The judge did not make a decision.
Drew faces up to three years in prison and a $300,000 fine. The trial was held in Los Angeles because the servers of social networking site are in the area.
What she did was a horrible thing and in my opinion she needs to be punished. However, I'm not certain it was a "federal offense" to register under a fake name.
I do not understand why they didn't go after her under the recent law which makes anonymous harassment illegal on the web in the US.
