A federal jury has been given the case of a mother accused of conspiring with her daughter and an assistant to harass a 13-year-old girl on the Internet, allegedly precipitating the teen's suicide.
"Lori Drew decided to humiliate a child," US Attorney Thomas O'Brien said. "The only way she could harm this pretty little girl was with a computer. She chose to use a computer to hurt a little girl, and for four weeks she enjoyed it."
Drew, 49, listened to the argument impassively. Her lawyer, Dean Steward, said jurors must remember she is not charged with homicide in the death of Megan Meier, who hanged herself after receiving a message that the world would be better off without her.
"If you hadn't heard the indictment read to you, you'd think this was a homicide case," he said. "And it's not a homicide case. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a computer case, and that's what you need to decide."
The defence attorney insisted the only question is whether Drew violated the terms-of-service agreement of the MySpace social networking site.
He said that Drew, her young daughter Sarah and assistant Ashley Grills never read the seven-page agreement.
"Nobody reads these things, nobody," he said. "... How can you violate something when you haven't even read it? End of case. The case is over."
Drew has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and accessing computers without authorisation. She could be sentenced to as many as 20 years in prison if convicted of all counts. The jury was scheduled to begin deliberations on Tuesday.
Assistant US Attorney Mark Krause, in closing arguments, said Drew was responsible for devising the plan to invent an imaginary boy called Josh Evans who would communicate online with Megan, the daughter of a neighbour and once Sarah's best friend. Prosecutors say Drew wanted to find out whether Megan was spreading rumours about Sarah.
The prosecution showed the jury the photo that was used on the fake MySpace profile - a bare-chested boy with tousled brown hair.
Krause said Drew told her daughter and the then-18-year-old Grills what to write, to make the messages "flirty." In so doing, he said, she violated the MySpace rules.
"The rules are fairly simple," he said. "You don't lie. You don't pretend to be someone else. You don't use the site to harass others. They harassed Megan Meier."
Krause also said Drew was warned by others that what she was doing was wrong, and Grills herself told Drew it might be illegal.
"She knew she was violating the rules and yet she told these two kids to keep doing it," he said.
"It went beyond a simple prank," said Krause, "to get her so hooked on this young man that she would be crushed when she found out he didn't exist."
Steward, in his response, said Drew had little to do with the content of the messages and was actually out of her home on the day of the final message, which was sent just before the suicide. He also said the message, which was quoted throughout the trial, has never been found but was actually sent via AOL, not the MySpace site.
