Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Felony charge against cyber-bully dropped

|
|
 
  
Published: Jan. 1, 2009 at 1:35 PM

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- A Missouri woman convicted of cyber-bullying a teenage girl will not face a felony conspiracy charge, court records show.

A U.S. attorney in Los Angeles has dropped the felony charge against Lori Drew, more than a month after the 49-year-old woman was convicted of harassing 13-year-old Megan Meier with Internet messages, the St. Louis (Mo.) Post-Dispatch said Thursday.

The removal of the charge comes after a federal jury was unable to reach a verdict on the felony charge. That same jury convicted Drew on Nov. 26 on three counts of accessing a computer without authorization, all misdemeanors.

The Post-Dispatch said federal guidelines could result in Drew receiving probation on the conviction, which holds a maximum sentence of three years in prison and a $300,000 fine.

Meier committed suicide in October 2006 in Dardenne Prairie, Mo. Prosecutors in Drew's case had alleged the suicide came about as the result of several hurtful messages Drew sent the teen through a MySpace account.

Drew's teenage daughter, Sarah, and Ashley Grills, an 18-year-old employee of Drew's, were also alleged to have taken part in the cyber-bullying.

Topics: Lori Drew, Megan Meier
© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 27
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego wins Finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
View Caption
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego, California watches confetti rain down as she wins the two-day Scripps National Spelling Bee championship, May 31, 2012, in National Harbor, Maryland. Nandipati successfully spelled the word .* guetapens *, meaning to lure or ambush. UPI/Mike Theiler
fark
Five arrested in prostitution sting. Article lists their names, ages and distance from a church
Photoshop this power tower technician
Driving drunk and unlicensed, with a kid not even buckled let alone in a safety seat, en route to...
Man killed in Spencer fire. The lava lamps must have ignited the blacklight posters
Passenger jet crashes into apartment building in Nigerian capitol. Over 150 princes, bank officials,...
I'll see your zombie apocalypse, and raise you "swarms of deadly spiders" invading a town in India...