ST. LOUIS, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- A federal judge has officially
acquitted a Missouri mother in a cyberbullying case linked to the
2006 suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier, authorities said.
U.S. District Judge George Wu's ruling acquitted Lori Drew,
of Dardenne Prairie, Mo., in a landmark case that garnered national
attention, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Monday.
In a ruling filed late Friday, Wu overturned a jury's
verdict that found Drew, 50, guilty of three misdemeanor charges of
illegally accessing a protected computer.
Wu said the case raised constitutional questions and put at
risk everyone who had ever violated a Web site's terms-of-service
agreement. Drew's conviction risked converting a "multitude of
otherwise innocent Internet users into misdemeanant criminals," Wu
said.
Meier hanged herself in October 2006 after receiving hurtful
messages from a user of the social networking service MySpace.com.
Meier thought the messages were from a boy she liked. The boy,
however, was a fake profile allegedly created by Drew and her
daughter.