Eyes around the nation are on this case. The Internet remains the wild wild west and federal prosecutors are trying to figure out how to tame it. Are they going too far? The defense attorney in this case thinks so. Others have little sympathy for the convicted mother.
By GREG RISLING
Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES — A defense attorney says prosecutors are the real bullies for seeking a stiff sentence against a Missouri mother once accused of scheming over the Internet to humiliate 13-year-old neighbor Megan Meier who later committed suicide.
Lawyer Dean Steward represents Lori Drew, who is scheduled to be sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court after being convicted in November of three misdemeanor counts of accessing computers without authorization.
Drew was found not guilty of the felony charge of intentionally causing emotional harm while accessing computers without authorization. The jury deadlocked on a felony conspiracy charge.
Steward said in recent court documents that prosecutors were trying to save face after they didn’t get the verdict they sought.
“The government’s case is all about making Lori Drew a public symbol of cyberbullying,” Steward said. “The government has created a fiction that Lori Drew somehow caused (Megan’s) death, and it wants a long prison sentence to make its fiction seem real.”
