Lori Drew trial Days 2 and 3

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More highlights from the Lori Drew trial.

Drew’s former hairdresser, Christina Chu, testified that Drew considered the harassment of Megan Meier ‘a funny story’. Chu even admonished Drew for what she was doing. When Chu asked why Drew wasn’t going to Megan’s wake Drew reportedly said: “It’s not like I pulled the trigger.”

Ashely Grills testified that when Drew learned of Megan’s death that Drew said to her “`We could have pushed her overboard because she was suicidal and depressed.’” Ya think?

And when Grills expressed her concerns to Drew about getting in trouble Drew dismissed it saying “It was fine and people do it all the time.”

MySpace executive Jae Sung basically testified that you have to check a box that shows you accept MySpace’s TOS. You think that would be a stupid thing to testify about but not everyone out in the non-internet world knows this.

Also, an FBI agent testified that Drew deleted files from her computer on the day of Megan’s suicide but they couldn’t tell what the files contained.

The prosecution rested and the defense made a motion for dismissal claiming that the prosecution did not prove Drew committed a crime. The Judge did not reject the motion and will rule on the dismissal on Monday.

Drew’s daughter Sara testified that Lori Drew told Ashley Grills to delete the fake MySpace two weeks before Megan committed suicide.

Comments

17 responses to “Lori Drew trial Days 2 and 3”

November 23, 2008

jade

what ever happened to the good old days of public stonings? i’d love to be the first one outside the courthouse tossing rocks at this stupid twat.

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November 23, 2008

gompertz

Well, I think stoning is too good for this one. I’m thinking more of root canal surgery with no anesthetic, to start with.

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November 23, 2008

Garland

LOL, gompertz. That was funny. Anyway, I hope that the judge does NOT dismiss this case. If he does, then it goes to show that there is no justice in this world for Megan.

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November 23, 2008

Anon

Trench, you made a major error in your post.

“Sarah told jurors her mother thought inventing ‘Josh’ was a good idea but changed her mind two weeks later and told Grills to shut it down.”

Two weeks from the beginning, not from the end.

Also, I’ve been reading up on relevant law for unrelated reasons, and have become convinced that, while Lori Drew certainly behaved reprehensibly, she did not commit any crimes.

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November 23, 2008

Melissa

Excuse me,anon. She didn’t commit any crimes? Carrying on an internet relationship with a twelve year old girl for whatever reason is a crime. On one of Megan’s pictures she posted a comment saying “do you want to pet my snake?”. If she were a man she would be charged with sex crimes. She harassed a little girl she KNEW was depressed. It doesn’t matter if she thought it wasn’t a good idea two weeks later. Why didn’t she make her daughter and assistant delete the profile? She is a sick twisted woman. She should never have gotten involved in a dispute between two children.

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November 23, 2008

Anon

Are we certain that Lori Drew, and not some other person, left the lewd comment?

Trench stated something that is incorrect. A mistake can be major without being particularly significant in the scheme of things.

I believe that we have different definitions of the word “crime”. I am using it to refer to violations of the various criminal codes, without giving it any inherent moral weight. I would sincerely like to see Lori Drew suffer a horrible fate, but if she is being tried under our laws, then they must govern.

By the way, please note that she is being charged with crimes relating to Terms of Service violations. In the eyes of the law, everything else is technically irrelevant to the case, regardless of the fact that Drew’s attorney has largely squandered that advantage.

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November 23, 2008

BelchSpeak

There is no evidence on her computer, either. Just deleting something is not a crime. I’m afraid she will walk away without any criminal charges. She will certainly face severe civil suits, but she can just go bankrupt.

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November 24, 2008

GregS

“Excuse me,anon. She didn&rsquot commit any crimes? Carrying on an internet relationship with a twelve year old girl for whatever reason is a crime.”

No it’s not a crime. Show me the federal or state law making it a crime.

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November 24, 2008

KittyMomma

Ah….excuse ME! Had it NOT been BUT FOR her e-mails the girl may not have committed suicide!

Therefore SHE IS THE CAUSE of this girls death just as easily as if she HAD pulled the trigger of a gun, she instead opted to use the trigger FINGER on the keyboards.

Any defense lawyer worth his salt can use this to make the case stick.

This wench needs to have an EXAMPLE made of her and her sickness so others don’t suffer through this ever again.

Granted there are emotionally ill people out there who are walking the brim of a cliff and all they need is a push, well this sick woman gave the child that PUSH and THEREFORE BECAUSE OF HER—THE CHILD IS DEAD.

And since when has ANY child stable or not, EVER had a chance against an experienced, conniving, lieing, sick ADULT—never. That child never stood a chance and that wench knew it.

Had it NOT been BUT FOR HER ACTIONS, this child would still be alive…imo.

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November 24, 2008

Garland

Fully agree with you, KittyMomma! I can’t believe that these people have the nerve to say that she didn’t commit any crimes whatsoever. As a matter of fact, I can’t believe that she got away with it the first time! There needs to be justice, one way or another. But if there is not justice for Megan, then this society is corrupt. But I do hope that she gets publicly humilated like before, &amp then having to wind up dealing with God for what she did when her time comes to stand face to face with him. She deserves no sympathy.

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November 24, 2008

Anon

Lori Drew is being charged with specific crimes related to Terms of Service Violations. The evidence that she committed those crimes, as they are defined, is sorely lacking. The fact that she committed other vile acts has no bearing on the case at hand. If you’re angry at any part of the government, it should the legislators who didn’t criminalize this behavior, or perhaps the prosecutor who couldn’t find something better with which to charger her.

I can understand, and would probably support, a desire to formally criminalize the act of a major bullying and/or deceiving a minor when it leads to the minor’s death. But that law is not on the books. Even if that law does get on the books, it will not be applied retroactively. Even if the judges do allow it to be applied retroactively, the double jeopardy clause of the Constitution would protect Lori Drew.

I live in a country of laws. I am happy to live in a country where I can work to change those laws if I consider them lacking. I am not happy at the thought of the laws being misapplied to situations that they don’t cover.

When Law and Justice are in dispute, Justice must chart the course, but Law must lead the way.

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November 24, 2008

Melissa

Carrying on an internet relationship with a twelve year old girl is a crime. Men have been arrested for less. Lori Drew clicked I agree stating she agreed to terms of service. That is a crime. Just because she did not read them does not matter ,as clicking on I agree is stating you did read the TOS.

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November 24, 2008

GregS

Melissa no it’s not a “crime”, you have to show me the law saying that. Solicitation of a minor for sex is a crime, but thats not what Lori Drew did. There is no indication that her relationship with Megan was sexual. Now the terms of service thing, thats what Lori Drew is actually being charged with, I don’t think violating the terms of service should be a crime.

In general they charged her the wrong way. They should have charged Lori Drew with criminal stalking, not with these laws which weren’t meant to apply to situations such as this.

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November 24, 2008

GregS

Garland what crime did she commit? Just because shes a bad person it doesnt mean there was a law in place to go after bad people.

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November 26, 2008

waitingwaiting

As of this moment, I’m waiting for the jury’s determination to come down in this case. No matter what the law says, what this woman did was wrong on so many fronts. She wanted to leave this little girl broken one way or another – either dumped by a myspace boyfriend or dead by suicide. Lori Drew knew that Megan was suicidal and on anti-depressants, yet she sent a message to Megan saying the world would be better off without her. Our laws in the U.S. aren’t up to date on cyber crimes, so it could be that Lori Drew will get by relatively unpunished by the courts in this matter. As hard as that is to live with, Lori Drew will pave the way for new laws about misrepresentation over the internet. Ultimately, she will remain Lori Drew and she can never escape that. The internet helped her accomplish a goal, now she can never get away from it. Thanks to the web, no matter where she moves people will always know who she is and what she did. For the rest of her life she’ll be infamous, and that’s an incredible punishment – a punishment that will also affect her children, whom, from what has been written, she tried so hard to protect.

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November 26, 2008

BelchSpeak

She was convicted of 3 counts of using someone else’s username and password to access a protected computer. She will do no time. It turns out she wasnt even the one who made Megan kill herself.

Wired magazine said:

Ashley Grills under a grant of immunity showed that nobody involved in the hoax actually read the terms-of-service. Grills also said that the hoax was her idea, not Drew’s, and that it was Grills who created the Josh Evans profile, and later sent the cruel message that tipped the emotionally-vulnerable 13-year-old girl into her final, tragic act.

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November 27, 2008

Garland

Then both of them should be punished. They have no right to do that whatsoever.

And there are also those idiots who want to blame Tina for her daughter’s suicide. Isn’t this a little harsh? No, not a little, this is ridiculous &amp very laughable. You can blame a lot of people for what happened and the truth is that there may be multiple places where the blame lies. But saying the mother herself is responsible for the death by her actions is just cruel. What really upsets me about your statements the most is the inference that the mother caused the suicide of her own child. Give me a break! Have you never told your child that they messed up? Parents are criticized for NOT keeping track of their kids online. This mother was upset that the daughter broke the internet rules as well as her telling Megan to log off many times before when she received those hateful comments from Lori. She was being a responsible parent &amp was doing her job like every parent should. I guess the most responsible thing to do if you have kids is throw out the computer.

You can blame the mom for not being “supportive” all you want but I challenge anyone with children to tell me how they’ve been perfectly supportive with every issue that’s ever bothered their child. If you tell me you’ve never said “buck up!” when your child has been hurt or never said “I told you so!” in some situation, then you’re lying. People ALL say things like this from time to time. Parents aren’t perfect. So don’t dare to blame the mother just because hindsight shows she MIGHT have been able to prevent what happened by being psychic, not to mention perfect and unable to be frustrated or emotional herself. The mother has enough blame from herself, I’m sure, saying the exact same thing. And that’s too bad, because it WASN’T her fault.

The mother clearly said and showed that she WAS involved with what was going on. She had read the E-mails with her daughter and WAS discussing them. That’s more than most parents even know in these situations. Sadly most only discover what was even going on AFTER their child has taken some regrettable action. So she did right. She simply did not have any clue that her daughter was so disturbed that she was possible of taking things to the extreme that she did. So in my book, the mother did better than 99% of the parents in these situations that I’ve read or heard about before because at least she communicated with her daughter and knew what was going on. Again, we can’t be perfect, and we can’t predict the future, especially when dealing with someone who evidently has mental issues we are not aware of or do not know the degree of.

This kind of thing has happened throughout history with teenagers, back before Romeo and Juliet. The message is clear though. Parents simply have to do the best they can. Know what their children are doing and stay involved and communicative with them. That’s all you can do. Also, don’t be hesitant to pull the plug on communications like a computer or even a cell phone if things are getting out of control. Yes, the child probably won’t appreciate that either, but if you feel things are out of control enough to warrant it, wouldn’t you rather be safe than sorry?

Bottom line, stop attacking the parents for not being perfect and not knowing exactly what would happen. It’s not fair and it makes you look like a fool as well. What happened is tragic enough without heaping extra blame in places where it doesn’t belong. In the end, the buck stops with each individual. No matter what, we are all responsible for our OWN actions. People have no idea what it’s like to lose a child due to the intense bullying that she had suffered, among what other incidents that children suffer due to others. And it certainly doesn’t come from their parents. Shame on those of you that are defending Lori’s actions. She needs to pay for this one way or another, whatever it’s prison time, public humilation, loss of money, etc., because she &amp her daughter knew what kind of problems that Megan had mentally, &amp decided to act out on it, &amp had shown absolutely no remorse for what they did. I hope you don’t have any kids.

Wake the hell up, people.

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