MySpace jury reaches verdicts on some counts

The jury in the MySpace cyber-bullying case has reached verdicts on three of four counts against a Missouri woman accused of perpetrating a hoax on a teenage girl who later committed suicide.

Jurors deliberated all day Monday before telling the judge just before 5 p.m. that they had reached verdicts on three counts but were split on the fourth. U.S. District Judge George H. Wu sent the jurors home and asked them to return this morning for further deliberations on the final count. He did not ask jurors which counts they had reached verdicts on.

Lori Drew, 49, is charged with three counts of violating federal computer statutes and one count of conspiracy for allegedly creating a MySpace account in the name of a fictitious 16-year-old boy and using it to engage in an online relationship with 13-year-old Megan Meier.

Meier, of Dardenne Prairie, Mo., hanged herself after the fictitious boy, “Josh Evans,” told her the world would be a better place without her, prosecutors alleged.

Thomas P. O’Brien, the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, claimed jurisdiction over the case based on the fact that MySpace is based in Beverly Hills.

Jurors are expected to resume deliberations at 9 a.m. this morning.

-- Scott Glover