Los Angeles - A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a criminal case against a woman who was charged with computer fraud for signing up for a false MySpace account and using it to badger a 13- year-old girl, who later committed suicide. Lori Drew, 50, was found guilty of three misdemeanour counts by a jury last year, but US District Court Judge George Wu granted a defence motion to dismiss the entire case.
"I dont see how the misdemeanour aspect would be constitutional," said Wu, who argued that the vagueness of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act could be used to prosecute anyone who lied about their age when signing up for an online account. "That is the issue I'm wrestling with at this time."
Drew had been accused of setting up a false profile on MySpace, in which she posed as a teenage boy and flirted with Megan Meier, 13, a girl who had been arguing with Drew's own daughter. After Drew told Meier that the world would be a better place without her, Meier hanged herself in her bedroom.
Drew had faced a maximum sentence of three years and a 300,000- dollar fine.
