Missouri woman pleads not guilt in MySpace harassment case

Earlier this year, students in my communication arts classes at South Middle School discussed the case of a Missouri woman who opened a MySpace account, masqueraded as a teenage boy, and drove a 13-year-old girl to commit suicide. At the time, no charges had been filed against the woman.
Since then, federal charges have been filed against the woman and she pleaded not guilty today:

Lori Drew, accused of helping create a fake MySpace profile and using it to harass a 13-year-old Dardenne Prairie girl who later killed herself, pleaded not guilty this morning in federal court in Los Angeles.
The pleas were expected and a minor milestone leading up to what the real battle will be in the case – whether prosecutors' use of a law normally used to target computer hackers will work in a cyber bullying case.
Megan Meier, who struggled with depression, hung herself in her bedroom Oct. 16, 2006 , shortly after receiving this message: “The world would be a better place without you.” Megan thought it was from “Josh Evans,” a 16-year-old boy with whom she'd developed an online relationship, but officials said the boy was a creation of Drew and others designed to find out what Megan was saying about Drew's daughter, who was a former friend of Megan.
Drew's indictment on a felony conspiracy charge and three charges of illegally accessing MySpace computers was handed down last month. U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien said then that Drew and unnamed “co-conspirators” violated MySpace's rules and terms of service by using false information to set up the Josh account.
They then used that account to “harass” Megan, O'Brien said.