Judge may throw out MySpace bullying trial

A federal judge overseeing the MySpace cyber-bullying trial said he would consider Monday whether to throw out the case on the grounds that the prosecution failed to show that the defendant, Lori Drew, had intentionally violated the rules governing the popular social networking website.

Drew, 49, is accused of creating a fake MySpace account and using it to torment a 13-year-old Missouri girl who later committed suicide.

During testimony this week, the government failed to establish that Drew had read the MySpace terms of service and therefore could not have intentionally violated them, Drew’s lawyer, H. Dean Steward, told the judge shortly after the prosecution rested its case Friday afternoon.

Steward asked that the charges be dismissed.

U.S. District Court Judge George H. Wu asked prosecutors a series of questions and appeared to be seriously considering granting Steward’s request.

But after taking a short recess, he said he would revisit the matter Monday.

-- Scott Glover