Cyberbullying Mom May Get Probabtion

The federal probation office in Los Angeles has recommended that Lori Drew receive probation and pay a $5,000 fine. Drew, 50, of St. Charles County, is scheduled to be sentenced May 18 in Los Angeles.

The pre-sentence report, compiled by the probation office, is not a public record, but its bottom-line recommendation was revealed in documents filed Sunday by H. Dean Steward, Drew's attorney.

Steward agreed that Drew should not go to jail but argued she should not pay a fine because she already has suffered financially.

U.S. District Judge George Wu does not have to follow the recommendation, but it is widely believed Drew will not go to prison because - as confirmed by the report - she has no prior criminal record.

She faces up to three years in prison. She was convicted in November by a Los Angeles jury of three misdemeanor counts of illegally accessing a protected computer. Jurors rejected felony charges that she did so to intentionally inflict emotional harm. They deadlocked on a felony count of conspiracy and prosecutors decided not to retry her on that.

Drew was charged in connection with the MySpace hoax that led to the 2006 suicide of Megan Meier, 13. Drew was a family friend and at the time lived four doors down the street in Dardenne Prairie.


Steward took issue with parts of the pre-sentence report. He argued that Drew did not know Megan suffered from depression until after the girl's death. At trial, Tina Meier - Megan's mother - testified that she had discussed Megan's depression with Drew before the suicide. Drew did not testify.

Steward also argued that Drew never "approved" the fake Josh Evans MySpace account that Drew, her daughter Sarah and a friend named Ashley Grills created to find out if Megan was saying mean things about Sarah. At trial, Grills said it was her idea and that Drew thought it was a good one.

Probation is appropriate, Steward argued, because Drew "has been widely portrayed as a pariah since the media began their intense coverage.

"Ms. Drew had a brick thrown through her window, along with numerous instances of vandalism on her property," Steward wrote. The harassment was "vicious and nonstop," he wrote.

Lt. Craig McGuire, with the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department, said Monday deputies have responded to three reports of vandalism at the house since December 2006.

Steward argued against the $5,000 fine because Drew was forced to close her 9-year-old business in November 2007. He wrote that Curt and Lori Drew are raising two children on Curt Drew's salary, "which does not cover expenses each month."

The charges were filed in Los Angeles because MySpace's computer servers are in nearby Beverly Hills.

Thom Mrozek, spokesman for Thomas O'Brien, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, declined comment Monday, other than saying prosecutors will respond in court.

Some moms get too involved in their children's lives in a bad way. If you have children act like a mom not like some teenager. Shouldn't a responsible mother have tried to work it out in a reasonable manner, instead of acting like someone from Mean Girls.

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