Raulken co.UK - Government’s star witness undercuts prosecution in suicide case

This is what you call not having your witness under control. Wired’s Kim Zetter reports that the government’s star witness massively undercut the government’s case against Lori Drew, who is accused of violating federal antihacking laws by using MySpace...

A landmark cyber-bullying trial got underway in the US on Wednesday with US prosecutors accusing a 49-year-old mother of sending taunting emails to a vulnerable teenage girl who later killed herself. Missouri woman Lori Drew faces federal charges of computer fraud and conspiracy in Los Angeles in connection with the death of 13-year-old Megan Meier, who committed suicide in 2006 at her home in St Louis. Drew, her daughter and a family friend who are not on trial, posed as a fictitious 16-year-old boy named "Josh Evans" who befriended Meier on social networking site Myspace as part of a plot to seek revenge. Meier, who Drew suspected of spreading false rumours about her daughter, hanged herself after receiving a message from "Josh" which said the world would be a better place without her, according to court do*****ents. The case is the first criminal prosecution in US legal history relating to allegations of cyber-bullying. Federal attorney Thomas O'Brien told a six-man, six-woman jury that Drew targeted Meier even though she knew the teenager was vulnerable. "The defendant knew Megan Meier was depressed, suicidal and boy-crazy," O'Brien at a US District Court in California. Drew set out "to tease, embarrass, humiliate, make fun of and hurt her," he said. However Drew's defence attorney Dean Steward stressed in opening remarks his client was not charged with Meier's death. "This is a computer...
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