Woman Could Go Scot-free in Cyber Bullying Case

The much talked about cyber bullying case could go up in a smoke. Lori Drew, the 49-year-old woman, charged with taunting 13-year-old Megan Meier to death, could walk away free.

Drew was convicted only of three misdemeanor counts on Wednesday.

The misdemeanors relate to gaining unauthorized access to MySpace for the purpose of obtaining information on Megan Meier, and they potentially carry up to a year in prison, but most likely will result in no time in custody.

The jury in Los Angeles federal court declined to convict Drew on more serious felony charges of accessing a computer without authorization to inflict emotional distress,

U.S. District Judge George Wu has not yet ruled on a defense motion seeking dismissal of even the misdemeanors charge. The motion, if granted, would result in a judgment of acquittal.

After just over a day of deliberation, the six-man, six-woman jury acquitted Drew of three felony charges of violating the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

The verdict followed three days of testimony by 15 witnesses.

The indictment charged Lori Drew with creating a fake profile for a nonexistent 16-year-old boy named "Josh Evans" in September 2006. The account was used to flirt with, and then reject, Megan Meier.

Drew conspired to create the Josh Evans account with her then 13-year-old daughter, Sarah, and a then-18-year-old employee and family friend named Ashley Grills, for the purpose of inflicting psychological harm on Meier. The whole idea was to settle scores with Meier over some spat between her and Drew’s daughter.