Date: 11/17/2008
By LINDA DEUTSCH
AP Special Correspondent
LOS ANGELES (AP) _ The case of U.S. vs. Lori Drew is viewed in legal circles as landmark Internet law, but as outlined in government documents with its neighborhood feuds and a teen’s suicide, it reads more like a plotline for a made-for-TV drama.
In fact, as the judge has noted, the case of the 49-year-old Missouri woman accused of taunting a 13-year-old girl on the Internet to the point where she committed suicide has already inspired an episode of “Law & Order.”
U.S. District Judge George Wu said he considered a defense motion to exclude evidence of the suicide from the trial that begins Tuesday. But he finally decided it would be futile since people being called for jury duty most likely know about it.
Instead, he said he would instruct the jurors that the case is about whether Drew violated the terms of service of the MySpace social networking site, not about whether she caused the suicide of Megan Meier.
Drew has pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing computers without authorization. Each count carries a potential sentence of five years in prison.
Drew’s lawyer, Dean Steward, argued that no matter what the judge tells the jury, once they hear the story, they will not see it as a case about violating rules in cyberspace.
“They will conclude it’s about the tragic death of a young girl,” he said. “The jury is going to end up thinking that Lori Drew is being tried for the death of Megan Meier.”
Not so, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Krause, but his memorandum presents a compelling narrative of discord and death in the town of Dardenne Prairie, Mo.
The saga began years ago when the Drew and Meier families were friends in the St. Louis suburb. Their daughters were the same age, attended school together and were friends.
Megan, who is referred to in court documents as M.T.M. because she was a minor, spent time with the Drews and traveled with them, the prosecutor said.
“However, their relationship was, at times, rocky,” the document notes. “On … occasions, M.T.M. feuded with defendant’s daughter.”
Megan’s mother, Christina Meier, confided in Drew that she was concerned for her daughter’s mental health and felt she was “particularly vulnerable,” Krause said.
Eventually, the girls drifted apart and in 2005, Megan transferred to a new school.
In the summer of 2006, Drew became concerned that Megan was spreading malicious rumors on MySpace about her daughter. The mother discussed the matter with her daughter and her 18-year-old assistant, Ashley Grills, the document said.
The three plotted to invent “an attractive male teenager” on MySpace and approach Megan using the false identity. They allegedly planned to find out what she was saying about Drew’s daughter.
Grills, who is expected to testify as the government’s star witness, has said she warned they would get in trouble if unmasked. But she said Drew assured her that “many people created fake identities on the Internet.”
Prosecutors declined to comment on whether Grills has been given immunity in exchange for her testimony.
“Josh Evans” was born on MySpace on Sept. 20, 2006, and was introduced as a new boy in town who was homeschooled and lonely.
The document said “he” contacted Megan, who quickly became smitten. After some innocent messages, Drew encouraged her co-conspirators to have him “flirt” with Megan.
Complications arose when another neighborhood girl obtained the password for the “Josh Evans” account and sent messages to Megan saying Josh no longer wanted to be friends with her. A dispute erupted and on Oct. 16, 2006, Grills typed a message telling Megan “that the world would be a better place without (her) in it.”
Megan ran upstairs and her mother found her about 20 minutes later hanging in her closet. She died the next day in the hospital.
Steward said outside court that part of Drew’s defense would be that she was not at home when the message was sent.
Grills said during an interview with the ABC’s “Good Morning America” last spring that she wrote the message to Megan in an effort to end the online relationship with “Josh” because Grills felt the joke had gone too far.
When she learned of the suicide, Drew told her “co-schemers” to delete the MySpace account, Krause wrote. She called the other girl who had become part of the MySpace conversation and told her to “keep her mouth shut” and to “stay off the MySpace.”
Megan’s death was investigated by Missouri authorities, but no state charges were filed because no laws appeared to apply to the case. But in California, U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O’Brien, noting that MySpace was headquartered in Los Angeles, found a statute that seemed to apply.
O’Brien said this was the first time the federal statute on accessing protected computers has been used in a social-networking case. It had been used in the past to address computer hacking.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Suicide is a major risk factor for brain injured individuals
http://subtlebraininjury.blogspot.com/2008/10/crisis-calls-increase.html
Earlier this week we posted an AP news story about the increase in suicides with the downturn in Wallstreet and the economy. I am old enough to remember my parents’ stories about the suicides on Wallstreet after the 1929 crash, so was certainly not surprised about this development. Suicide prevention is one of the areas of advocacy that does not get enough attention. Suicide is a major risk factor for brain injured individuals, as depression and organic brain injury create a dangerous synergism.
There are surprisingly inadequate suicide resources on the web. I have previously linked some of those, but will endeavor in the coming days to supplement those we have discussed before. However, the most significant thing that can be done to prevent actual suicides is to insure that no one who is potentially despondent, has access to a handgun.
Included is a chart of the statistical analysis of suicide deaths in the US. Many have seen the movie Bowling for Columbine, which is Michael Moore’s treatment of gun control. While I agree with Moore, what Moore doesn’t say in this movie is that two-thirds of the gunshot deaths in the United States are suicides.
Look at the 5th column on the chart below – Case Fatality Rate. The success rate on all suicide attempts (including guns) is only 8.66%; the rate for those who attempt it with a gun – 85%. Even those who jump succeed only 31% of the time. The only other method that has more than a 50% success rate is those who attempt suicide through suffocation.
THE REAL REASON FOR GUN CONTROL? Of the 16,899 who killed themselves with guns, 16,200 would still be alive. I represent depressed people. The impulse to kill themselves is something they get past. But not when the impulse is combined with a gun.
800-992-9447
©Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr. 2008
Earlier this week we posted an AP news story about the increase in suicides with the downturn in Wallstreet and the economy. I am old enough to remember my parents’ stories about the suicides on Wallstreet after the 1929 crash, so was certainly not surprised about this development. Suicide prevention is one of the areas of advocacy that does not get enough attention. Suicide is a major risk factor for brain injured individuals, as depression and organic brain injury create a dangerous synergism.
There are surprisingly inadequate suicide resources on the web. I have previously linked some of those, but will endeavor in the coming days to supplement those we have discussed before. However, the most significant thing that can be done to prevent actual suicides is to insure that no one who is potentially despondent, has access to a handgun.
Included is a chart of the statistical analysis of suicide deaths in the US. Many have seen the movie Bowling for Columbine, which is Michael Moore’s treatment of gun control. While I agree with Moore, what Moore doesn’t say in this movie is that two-thirds of the gunshot deaths in the United States are suicides.
Look at the 5th column on the chart below – Case Fatality Rate. The success rate on all suicide attempts (including guns) is only 8.66%; the rate for those who attempt it with a gun – 85%. Even those who jump succeed only 31% of the time. The only other method that has more than a 50% success rate is those who attempt suicide through suffocation.
THE REAL REASON FOR GUN CONTROL? Of the 16,899 who killed themselves with guns, 16,200 would still be alive. I represent depressed people. The impulse to kill themselves is something they get past. But not when the impulse is combined with a gun.
www.tbilaw.com
www.subtlebraininjury.com
g@gordonjohnson.com
800-992-9447
©Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr. 2008
Crisis Calls Increase
Date: 10/21/2008 3:01 AM
ALBANY, Ga. (AP) — Calls to the Georgia Crisis and Access line from people with concerns about financial difficulties increased 64 percent during July to September over the same period in 2006. Mandy Mercer’s company, Behavioral Health Link, operates the hot line. She said 930 callers used words such as mortgage foreclosure, bank and debt when describing their problems to counselors.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
ALBANY, Ga. (AP) — Calls to the Georgia Crisis and Access line from people with concerns about financial difficulties increased 64 percent during July to September over the same period in 2006. Mandy Mercer’s company, Behavioral Health Link, operates the hot line. She said 930 callers used words such as mortgage foreclosure, bank and debt when describing their problems to counselors.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Suicides from financial crisis cause concern
Date: 10/14/2008 9:00 AM
By KELLI KENNEDY
Associated Press Writer
An out-of-work money manager in California loses a fortune and wipes out his family in a murder-suicide. A 90-year-old Ohio widow shoots herself in the chest as authorities arrive to evict her from the modest house she called home for 38 years.
In Massachusetts, a housewife who had hidden her family’s mounting financial crisis from her husband sends a note to the mortgage company warning: “By the time you foreclose on my house, I’ll be dead.”
Then Carlene Balderrama shot herself to death, leaving an insurance policy and a suicide note on a table.
Across the country, authorities are becoming concerned that the nation’s financial woes could turn increasingly violent, and they are urging people to get help. In some places, mental-health hot lines are jammed, counseling services are in high demand and domestic-violence shelters are full.
“I’ve had a number of people say that this is the thing most reminiscent of 9/11 that’s happened here since then,” said the Rev. Canon Ann Malonee, vicar at Trinity Church in the heart of New York’s financial district. “It’s that sense of having the rug pulled out from under them.”
With nowhere else to turn, many people are calling suicide-prevention hot lines. The Samaritans of New York have seen calls rise more than 16 percent in the past year, many of them money-related. The Switchboard of Miami has recorded more than 500 foreclosure-related calls this year.
“A lot of people are telling us they are losing everything. They’re losing their homes, they’re going into foreclosure, they’ve lost their jobs,” said Virginia Cervasio, executive director of a suicide resource enter in southwest Florida’s Lee County.
But tragedies keep mounting:
— In Los Angeles last week, a former money manager fatally shot his wife, three sons and his mother-in-law before killing himself.
Karthik Rajaram, 45, left a suicide note saying he was in financial trouble and contemplated killing just himself. But he said he decided to kill his entire family because that was more honorable, police said.
Rajaram once worked for a major accounting firm and for Sony Pictures, and he had been part-owner of a financial holding company. But he had been out of work for several months, police said.
After the murder-suicide, police and mental-health officials in Los Angeles took the unusual step of urging people to seek help for themselves or loved ones if they feel overwhelmed by grim financial news. They said they were specifically afraid of the “copycat phenomenon.”
“This is a perfect American family behind me that has absolutely been destroyed, apparently because of a man who just got stuck in a rabbit hole, if you will, of absolute despair,” Deputy Police Chief Michel Moore said. “It is critical to step up and recognize we are in some pretty troubled times.”
— In Tennessee, a woman fatally shot herself last week as sheriff’s deputies went to evict her from her foreclosed home.
Pamela Ross, 57, and her husband were fighting foreclosure on their home when sheriff’s deputies in Sevierville came to serve an eviction notice. They were across the street when they heard a gunshot and found Ross dead from a wound to the chest. The case was even more tragic because the couple had recently been granted an extra 10 days to appeal.
— In Akron, Ohio, the 90-year-old widow who shot herself on Oct. 1 is recovering. A congressman told Addie Polk’s story on the House floor before lawmakers voted to approve a $700 billion financial rescue package. Mortgage finance company Fannie Mae dropped the foreclosure, forgave her mortgage and said she could remain in the home.
— In Ocala, Fla., Roland Gore shot his wife and dog in March and then set fire to the couple’s home, which had been in foreclosure, before killing himself. His case was one of several in which people killed spouses or pets, destroyed property or attacked police before taking their own lives.
“The financial stress builds up to the point the person feels they can’t go on, and the person believes their family is better off dead than left without a financial support,” said Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Washington D.C.-based Violence Policy Center.
Dr. Edward Charlesworth, a clinical psychologist in Houston, said the current crisis is breeding a sense of chronic anxiety among people who feel helpless and panic-stricken, as well as angry that their government has let them down.
“They feel like in this great society that we live in we should have more protection for the individuals rather than just the corporation,” he said.
It’s not yet clear there is a statistical link between suicides and the financial downturn since there is generally a two-year lag in national suicide figures. But historically, suicides increase in times of economic hardship. And the current financial crisis is already being called the worst since the Great Depression.
Rising mortgage defaults and falling home values are at the heart of it. More than 4 million Americans were at least one month behind on their mortgages at the end of June, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
A record 500,000 had entered the foreclosure process. And that trend is expected to continue through next year, despite the current programs from the government and the lending industry to refinance delinquent homeowners into more affordable loans.
Counselors at Catholic Charities USA report seeing a “significant increase” in the need for housing counseling.
One counselor said half of her clients were on some form of antidepressant or anti-anxiety medication. The agency has seen a decrease in overall funding, but it has expanded foreclosure counseling and received nearly $2 million for such services in late 2007.
Adding to financially tense households is an air of secrecy. Experts said it’s common for one spouse to blame the other for their financial mess or to hide it entirely, as Balderrama did.
After falling 3½ years behind in payments, the Taunton, Mass., housewife had been intercepting letters from the mortgage company and shredding them before her husband saw them. She tried to refinance but was declined.
In July, on the day the house was to be auctioned, she faxed the note to the mortgage company. Then the 52-year-old walked outside, shot her three beloved cats and then herself with her husband’s rifle.
Notes left on the table revealed months of planning. She’d picked out her funeral home, laid out the insurance policy and left a note saying, “pay off the house with the insurance money.”
“She put in her suicide note that it got overwhelming for her,” said her husband, John Balderrama. “Apparently she didn’t have anyone to talk to. She didn’t come to me. I don’t know why. There’s gotta be some help out there for people that are hurting, (something better) than to see somebody lose a life over a stupid house.”
___
Associated Press Writers P. Solomon Banda in Denver, Joann Loviglio in Philadelphia, Juanita Cousins in Atlanta, Samantha Gross in New York and John Rogers in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By KELLI KENNEDY
Associated Press Writer
An out-of-work money manager in California loses a fortune and wipes out his family in a murder-suicide. A 90-year-old Ohio widow shoots herself in the chest as authorities arrive to evict her from the modest house she called home for 38 years.
In Massachusetts, a housewife who had hidden her family’s mounting financial crisis from her husband sends a note to the mortgage company warning: “By the time you foreclose on my house, I’ll be dead.”
Then Carlene Balderrama shot herself to death, leaving an insurance policy and a suicide note on a table.
Across the country, authorities are becoming concerned that the nation’s financial woes could turn increasingly violent, and they are urging people to get help. In some places, mental-health hot lines are jammed, counseling services are in high demand and domestic-violence shelters are full.
“I’ve had a number of people say that this is the thing most reminiscent of 9/11 that’s happened here since then,” said the Rev. Canon Ann Malonee, vicar at Trinity Church in the heart of New York’s financial district. “It’s that sense of having the rug pulled out from under them.”
With nowhere else to turn, many people are calling suicide-prevention hot lines. The Samaritans of New York have seen calls rise more than 16 percent in the past year, many of them money-related. The Switchboard of Miami has recorded more than 500 foreclosure-related calls this year.
“A lot of people are telling us they are losing everything. They’re losing their homes, they’re going into foreclosure, they’ve lost their jobs,” said Virginia Cervasio, executive director of a suicide resource enter in southwest Florida’s Lee County.
But tragedies keep mounting:
— In Los Angeles last week, a former money manager fatally shot his wife, three sons and his mother-in-law before killing himself.
Karthik Rajaram, 45, left a suicide note saying he was in financial trouble and contemplated killing just himself. But he said he decided to kill his entire family because that was more honorable, police said.
Rajaram once worked for a major accounting firm and for Sony Pictures, and he had been part-owner of a financial holding company. But he had been out of work for several months, police said.
After the murder-suicide, police and mental-health officials in Los Angeles took the unusual step of urging people to seek help for themselves or loved ones if they feel overwhelmed by grim financial news. They said they were specifically afraid of the “copycat phenomenon.”
“This is a perfect American family behind me that has absolutely been destroyed, apparently because of a man who just got stuck in a rabbit hole, if you will, of absolute despair,” Deputy Police Chief Michel Moore said. “It is critical to step up and recognize we are in some pretty troubled times.”
— In Tennessee, a woman fatally shot herself last week as sheriff’s deputies went to evict her from her foreclosed home.
Pamela Ross, 57, and her husband were fighting foreclosure on their home when sheriff’s deputies in Sevierville came to serve an eviction notice. They were across the street when they heard a gunshot and found Ross dead from a wound to the chest. The case was even more tragic because the couple had recently been granted an extra 10 days to appeal.
— In Akron, Ohio, the 90-year-old widow who shot herself on Oct. 1 is recovering. A congressman told Addie Polk’s story on the House floor before lawmakers voted to approve a $700 billion financial rescue package. Mortgage finance company Fannie Mae dropped the foreclosure, forgave her mortgage and said she could remain in the home.
— In Ocala, Fla., Roland Gore shot his wife and dog in March and then set fire to the couple’s home, which had been in foreclosure, before killing himself. His case was one of several in which people killed spouses or pets, destroyed property or attacked police before taking their own lives.
“The financial stress builds up to the point the person feels they can’t go on, and the person believes their family is better off dead than left without a financial support,” said Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Washington D.C.-based Violence Policy Center.
Dr. Edward Charlesworth, a clinical psychologist in Houston, said the current crisis is breeding a sense of chronic anxiety among people who feel helpless and panic-stricken, as well as angry that their government has let them down.
“They feel like in this great society that we live in we should have more protection for the individuals rather than just the corporation,” he said.
It’s not yet clear there is a statistical link between suicides and the financial downturn since there is generally a two-year lag in national suicide figures. But historically, suicides increase in times of economic hardship. And the current financial crisis is already being called the worst since the Great Depression.
Rising mortgage defaults and falling home values are at the heart of it. More than 4 million Americans were at least one month behind on their mortgages at the end of June, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
A record 500,000 had entered the foreclosure process. And that trend is expected to continue through next year, despite the current programs from the government and the lending industry to refinance delinquent homeowners into more affordable loans.
Counselors at Catholic Charities USA report seeing a “significant increase” in the need for housing counseling.
One counselor said half of her clients were on some form of antidepressant or anti-anxiety medication. The agency has seen a decrease in overall funding, but it has expanded foreclosure counseling and received nearly $2 million for such services in late 2007.
Adding to financially tense households is an air of secrecy. Experts said it’s common for one spouse to blame the other for their financial mess or to hide it entirely, as Balderrama did.
After falling 3½ years behind in payments, the Taunton, Mass., housewife had been intercepting letters from the mortgage company and shredding them before her husband saw them. She tried to refinance but was declined.
In July, on the day the house was to be auctioned, she faxed the note to the mortgage company. Then the 52-year-old walked outside, shot her three beloved cats and then herself with her husband’s rifle.
Notes left on the table revealed months of planning. She’d picked out her funeral home, laid out the insurance policy and left a note saying, “pay off the house with the insurance money.”
“She put in her suicide note that it got overwhelming for her,” said her husband, John Balderrama. “Apparently she didn’t have anyone to talk to. She didn’t come to me. I don’t know why. There’s gotta be some help out there for people that are hurting, (something better) than to see somebody lose a life over a stupid house.”
___
Associated Press Writers P. Solomon Banda in Denver, Joann Loviglio in Philadelphia, Juanita Cousins in Atlanta, Samantha Gross in New York and John Rogers in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
What resources are available online for someone who is suicidal?
I have devoted most of the last month to blogging about the interplay between emotional issues and brain damage, especially focused on military injuries. See http://tbilaw.blogspot.com Regardless of what the underlying cause of someone’s despair, it is critical that he or she reaches out for help. I asked my research assistant this question: What resources are available online for someone who is suicidal?
Here is what she put together for me:
The internet and 1-800 free hotlines seem to be quick and helpful sources of information for someone who has suicidal thoughts.
Since, there are so many websites, it is impossible to list them all. Here are some good starting points for help.
http://www.metanoia.org/suicide/
This website was written by Martha Ainsworth who based her information and inspiration from David Conroy, Ph. D. David Conroy is the Executive Director of Suicide Prevention Resource and author of a Suicide Prevention book, Out of the Nightmare: Recovery from Depression and Suicidal Pain.
The website features “The Samaritans” (http://www.metanoia.org/suicide/samaritans.htm) who are trained volunteers available 24 hours a day to listen by email or phone. A Samaritan volunteer can be reached by email at: jo@samaritans.org or by phone at: 1-800-365-4044 and additional numbers can be found at: http://www.befrienders.org/, which is an organization affiliated with The Samaritans.
The site also suggests that someone having suicidal thoughts could talk to a therapist online. Therapist online can answer your email questions and provide online counseling. All of the online therapists listed provide online counseling for a fee, however, The Samaritan remains free. The website for this information is: http://www.metanoia.org/imhs/clinics.htm
There is also information about a Depression support group, Walkers in Darkness, who provide support and information for others who our suffering from depression.
The website for this information is: http://www.walkers.org/
Lastly, if you have the time and patience you can also find a therapist who can help you work through your suicidal problems. http://www.find-a-therapist.com/ For information on how to pick the best therapist for you see:
http://www.goodtherapy.org/custom/blog/2007/05/14/how-to-choose-a-counselor-or-therapist/
It is important that someone who has suicidal thoughts talk to someone and does not keep the thoughts to themselves. There is plenty of helpful information out there and many people that want to help.
Here is what she put together for me:
The internet and 1-800 free hotlines seem to be quick and helpful sources of information for someone who has suicidal thoughts.
Since, there are so many websites, it is impossible to list them all. Here are some good starting points for help.
http://www.metanoia.org/suicide/
This website was written by Martha Ainsworth who based her information and inspiration from David Conroy, Ph. D. David Conroy is the Executive Director of Suicide Prevention Resource and author of a Suicide Prevention book, Out of the Nightmare: Recovery from Depression and Suicidal Pain.
The website features “The Samaritans” (http://www.metanoia.org/suicide/samaritans.htm) who are trained volunteers available 24 hours a day to listen by email or phone. A Samaritan volunteer can be reached by email at: jo@samaritans.org or by phone at: 1-800-365-4044 and additional numbers can be found at: http://www.befrienders.org/, which is an organization affiliated with The Samaritans.
The site also suggests that someone having suicidal thoughts could talk to a therapist online. Therapist online can answer your email questions and provide online counseling. All of the online therapists listed provide online counseling for a fee, however, The Samaritan remains free. The website for this information is: http://www.metanoia.org/imhs/clinics.htm
There is also information about a Depression support group, Walkers in Darkness, who provide support and information for others who our suffering from depression.
The website for this information is: http://www.walkers.org/
Lastly, if you have the time and patience you can also find a therapist who can help you work through your suicidal problems. http://www.find-a-therapist.com/ For information on how to pick the best therapist for you see:
http://www.goodtherapy.org/custom/blog/2007/05/14/how-to-choose-a-counselor-or-therapist/
It is important that someone who has suicidal thoughts talk to someone and does not keep the thoughts to themselves. There is plenty of helpful information out there and many people that want to help.