POKIN AROUND: A typical suburban scene, with one catch
Curt and Lori Drew's daughter, now 15 1/2, is learning to drive.
He waved to a neighbor, who waved back. In the garage was a red minivan. Bicycles hung from a rack. The Drews also have a younger child, a son.The scene is a tableau of suburban living.
But on June 16 in federal court in Los Angeles, the next chapter of the Megan Meier story commences. Lori Drew, a 49-year-old housewife, will answer criminal charges that carry a maximum 20 years in prison.
"I have a job to do," says her lawyer, H. Dean Steward, of San Clemente, Calif. "And if I do it right, she won't spend a day in jail."
Curt Drew didn't know I was coming on this day. He and his wife, Lori, never know when I'm coming. I don't have their phone number and they won't give it to me. So, about once a month in order to try to talk to them, I drive the 26 miles, round-trip, from my office to their home in Dardenne Prairie.
I have done this for months to afford them the opportunity to comment on stories I write. Sometimes they're not home. Sometimes they are. Usually, they politely tell me they have nothing to say. Once, Lori agreed to an interview but canceled after conferring with her attorney.
On this bright day, Curt goes inside and returns to tell me Lori will not come out to talk to me.
So, I start, as always, asking questions.
No, he says, Lori has not yet booked airfare to Los Angeles. She will have to pay for her transportation and lodging.
(I checked on Thursday and the cheapest airfare - with taxes and fees - from St. Louis to Los Angeles on June 15 was $397.)
Curt does not yet know if he will go with her and, even if he did, he wouldn't tell me, he says. He would not want the public to know when his home might be vacant. He's concerned about vandalism by those with strong feelings about Lori's involvement in Megan's October 2006 suicide, as well as loss from your run-of-the-mill burglar.
I ask how his family is doing now that Lori is indicted, as of May 15.
"We take one day at a time," he says.
The charges against his wife mark the first time a prosecutor has used the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to accuse someone of breaking the law in accessing a social network's servers. The MySpace servers are in Beverly Hills. Drew allegedly violated MySpace's Terms of Service by providing false information.
"The only thing I will say before I'm going to shut my mouth is that now, eventually, our side of the story will be coming out," Curt says. "The people will understand our side of the story. For every story, there are two sides and, unfortunately, you people have only heard one side."
I remind him that it's not for lack of trying.
Lori Drew is accused of creating a fictitious MySpace account for Josh Evans, a handsome 16-year-old who did not exist, to find out if Megan was saying mean things about the Drews' daughter. Josh quickly sought out Megan as a MySpace friend, and the two flirted for several weeks before Josh suddenly turned mean and Megan hanged herself.
Drew has denied sending messages to Megan as Josh and has said she was not home when Megan hanged herself. The girl, who had a history of depression, died the next day.
In Missouri, state and federal prosecutors investigated the matter and chose not to file charges.
Thomas P. O'Brien, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, claims jurisdiction because MySpace is located near Los Angeles. His theory is that Lori Drew defrauded MySpace for the purpose of gathering information on Megan and inflicting emotional distress.
Steward, the California defense lawyer, declined to comment on the charges.
"I will get to all of that when we get into court," Steward says. "There are a lot of interesting legal questions."
Here's what will happen June 16 during Lori Drew's arraignment, Steward says.
About 10 a.m., she will plead not guilty, he says. The case will be assigned, randomly, to a judge.
"There are 28 judges in Los Angeles," Steward says. "All are very unique and very different."
Drew will sign a "signature bond," meaning she will not have to post money but agrees to pay, for example, $10,000, should she not show up in court at a later date.
None of the judges has a track record in this area of law because there's never been a case like it, says Rebecca Lonergan, associate professor of law at the University of Southern California School of Law.
"This is cutting edge," she says.
Lonergan was a prosecutor for 20 years in Southern California, first in the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office and then for 16 years with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles. She worked for O'Brien when he headed the office's criminal division.
"I think it is a bit of a stretch to use this particular statute to cover the conduct that has been charged," she says.
A key element of the prosecution is that Drew allegedly created the fake MySpace account for the purpose of gaining information about Megan, she says.
"It seems to me on the common sense level that the intent was to harass, if anything," she says.
In her view, the best prosecution would have stemmed from using a different law, the Federal Telecommunications Act, which has a subsection that specifically addresses harassment via computer.
But that charge would have had to come from the office of Catherine Hanaway, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri.
Hanaway has said, "This office reviewed the Drew case for cyber threats and found that there were none."
Lonergan says although the Federal Telecommunications Act is a better fit, it carries a maximum of only two years in prison with no enhancements when an adult harasses a minor or when the harassment leads to dire consequences, such as a suicide.
Two weeks ago, Missouri Rep. Kenny Hulshof, R-9th District, and California Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-39th District, co-sponsored a bill that would make "cyber-bullying" a federal crime. Hulshof is a candidate for governor.
In Lonergan's view, their efforts would be better served by creating stiffer penalties under the Federal Telecommunications Act.
If Drew is convicted in Los Angeles under the computer-fraud theory, Lonergan says, then there will be many more potential criminals in cyberspace.
"There are a lot of people out there who lie about what they put on MySpace or Facebook," she says. "You don't see prosecutions of those."
