U.S. District Judge George Wu decided Thursday in Los Angeles that he needs more time before ruling whether Lori Drew, 49, of Dardenne Prairie, will stand trial in connection with the 2006 suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier.

Drew’s defense attorney offered three main arguments for dismissal earlier this summer. Wu denied two of them, but wanted "a couple more days" to consider the third -- that the charges should be dismissed because prosecutors failed to state a claim, according Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the federal prosecutor in Los Angeles.

H. Dean Steward, Drew’s attorney, argued in court documents that the government failed to state an offense because the facts of the case, as presented by prosecutors, were either not true or irrelevant; that the charges do little more than parrot the statutory language of the alleged crime and that Drew did not know her conduct violated the rules of MySpace.

"I was hoping for some good news today," Curt Drew said Thursday afternoon. He said his wife was in Los Angeles for the court hearing. She was there as an observer, he said.

He said he and his wife and their two children will continue to wait to see if there will be a trial.

"It’s frustrating," Curt Drew said.

Lori Drew faces up to 20 years in prison.

Ron Meier, who lives four doors down from the Drews, said this afternoon that the prosecutor in the case called him after the hearing.

"I think it’s pretty positive after talking to them out there," said Meier, Megan’s father.

Another pre-trial hearing has been set for Sept. 23.

The case marks the first time a prosecutor has attempted to use the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, enacted 22 years ago to deal with computer hackers, to try to convict someone for falsely identifying who they are on a social networking site and for violating a Web site’s terms of service.

The tentative trial date, should Drew eventually go to trial, is Oct. 7.

Drew is accused of illegally accessing MySpace’s computers for the purpose of inflicting emotional distress. Although the events unfolded in Dardenne Prairie, the trial is in a federal court in California because MySpace has its headquarters and computer servers in Beverly Hills, near Los Angeles.

Lori Drew and her daughter, 13 at the time, as well as Ashley Grills, then 18, were involved in creating a fake MySpace account for a fictional boy named "Josh Evans." The bogus account was created to find out if Megan was saying mean things about Drew’s daughter. The two girls had been friends but had a recent falling out.

Megan became interested in Josh as a boyfriend and killed herself after Josh suddenly became mean to her. Megan had suffered from depression.

Lori Drew has denied sending any messages as Josh to Megan. But Grills, when she appeared on "Good Morning America" in April, said Lori Drew was more involved in the hoax than she has acknowledged and "a couple of times" wrote messages as Josh. Grills is expected to testify against Drew should there be a trial.

But Grills also admitted on TV that she was the person sending mean messages to Megan right before the girl went up to her room and hanged herself.

St. Charles County Prosecutor Jack Banas reviewed the case and concluded that although Lori Drew’s actions were inappropriate for an adult and parent, they were not illegal under Missouri law.

Since then, Missouri legislators have changed the law to more directly address cyberspace harassment and to stiffen penalties when an adult harasses a child.

The office of Catherine Hanaway, the U.S. Attorney for Eastern Missouri, also reviewed the case and decided not to bring charges.

Steward has argued that if his client broke the law by violating MySpace’s terms of service, then millions of Americans probably break the law every day.

Prosecutors, in turn, have contended that at each step Drew showed a clear and consistent criminal intent that separates this case from a mere violation of terms of service.