MySpace Suicide verdict: Lori Drew guilty of lesser charges

A Federal Jury in Los Angeles hearing the MySpace suicide case has found Lori Drew guilty of three minor offenses.

The MySpace Suicide made headlines last year after it was disclosed that a Missouri teenager Megan Meier hanged herself after being tricked into a fake relationship with a fictitious boy on MySpace. Lori Drew, the mother of a school rival of Megan Meier was posing as the boy.

The result wasn’t all good news: the jury could not reach a verdict on a conspiracy count, and U.S. District Court Judge George Wu declared a mistrial on the charge reports AP. It’s not clear at this stage whether a new trial will be held to rehear those charge. If later found guilty of conspiracy, Drew could face 20 years in jail.

Instead the jury found Lori Drew guilty of three counts of accessing a computer without authorization, with a maximum 3 year sentence possible and up to a $300,000 fine. Sentencing has not yet been decided.

Obviously its unfortunate they didn’t get all four to stick, but at least some justice has been had.

(img credit: The Age)