In an interesting twist, LA prosecutors may be weighing whether to charge Lori Drew with fraud for her MySpace hoax of Megan Meier, reasoning that the crime occured inside their jurisdiction, since MySpace is headquartered in California. From the LA Times today:

Prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, however, are exploring the possibility of charging Drew with defrauding the MySpace social networking website by allegedly creating the false account, according to the sources, who insisted on anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

The sources said prosecutors are looking at federal wire fraud and cyber fraud statutes as they consider the case. Prosecutors believe they have jurisdiction because MySpace is headquartered in Beverly Hills, the sources said.

If this is true, it’s news to the Meiers and the Drews’ attorneys:

Attorney Jim Briscoe, who represents Lori Drew, said: “We have no knowledge of . . . anything dealing with a grand jury anywhere dealing with this case. . . . The only comment I have is we can’t comment on rumors from anonymous sources.”

The news came as a shock to Tina and Ron Meier, Megan’s parents. Both said they were unaware of the grand jury and had not been contacted by the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

“If MySpace is considered the victim, fine. I don’t care at this point,” said Tina Meier, 37. “We’ve been begging for someone — anyone — to pick up this case. If the Drews can be charged — and even get the chance to be convicted — it would be a day I could be happy with.”

Thanks to Liz Ditz for the tip! I’ll keep following this.

Update: Great conversation on the WSJ Law Blog (thanks, Gideon!) Also, there’s a video of an interview with the Meiers here. I can’t load it, but if you can, good luck.

Technorati Tags: Lori Drew, Megan Meier, MySpace, cyberbullying, fraud, internet, hoax, internet, legal