MySpace Hoax Sentence Delayed; Will Judge Void Verdict in Cyberbully Case?
A scheduled sentencing today has been postponed for a 50-year-old Missouri mom convicted of violating a federal statute in an unusual cyberbullying case.
Lori Drew will now be sentenced July 2 on three misdemeanor counts of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by obtaining unauthorized access to a social networking website, according to ABC News. Prosecutors contend that the fake MySpace profile she played a role in concocting helped drive a young neighbor to suicide.
In a Los Angeles court hearing this afternoon, U.S. District Judge George Wu said he is postponing sentencing because he wants to review prosecution witness testimony, recounts the ABC article.
Wu is also deciding how to rule on a defense motion to overturn the jury verdict, and said he needs to review trial transcripts for that purpose, too, reports the Threat Level blog of Wired.
A one-year term of probation and a $5,000 fine is the sentence recommended in a presentence investigation report.
However, Drew could get as much as three years in prison and a $300,000 fine, ABC reports. Prosecutors say Drew helped to create a fake MySpace profile for a fictitious teenage boy as part of a a “scheme to humiliate” 13-year-old Megan Meier, a neighbor of Drew’s in a St. Louis suburb.
Additional coverage:
Associated Press: “Sentencing delayed for Mo. woman in MySpace hoax”
