Ct cases in the News: online hoax mom

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[Lucy]

Jury convicts mom of lesser charges in online hoax
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081126/ap_on_re_us/internet_suicide

A teenage girl commits suicide after responding to an online hoax that she thought was a boy interested in her, and then rejected her.  Turns out to be a mom and daughter team that were taunting/teasing her.

What do you think?
  Do you think she deserve punishment?
  Is an indictment too severe for the behavior?
  Should she get a lighter sentence? or heavier? (within the options of the court?)

Should her daughter be punished similarly? or more leniently? or it comes under "stupid kids" and no punishment is required?

For more background:
http://www.startribune.com/nation/35071049.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUF
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21844203/

[Snoskred]

This bit worries me.. note when I speak about you below I mean the general, 3rd person you, not *you* Lucy

Drew's lawyer, Dean Steward, contended his client had little to do with the content of the messages and was not at home when the final one was sent. Steward also argued that nobody reads the fine print on service agreements.

"How can you violate something when you haven't even read it?" Steward asked. "End of case."

People *should* read the fine print on service agreements. Claiming that you didn't read it doesn't mean you are not bound by it. It is your responsibility to read it.

[mimi]

 Yes, that wicked mother deserves to be indicted.  What a horrid lesson to teach her daughter!

The daughter?  She needs to be held accountable in some way also.  I don't have any thoughts about that at this time.

[Deep Blue]

This bit worries me.. note when I speak about you below I mean the general, 3rd person you, not *you* Lucy

Drew's lawyer, Dean Steward, contended his client had little to do with the content of the messages and was not at home when the final one was sent. Steward also argued that nobody reads the fine print on service agreements.

"How can you violate something when you haven't even read it?" Steward asked. "End of case."

People *should* read the fine print on service agreements. Claiming that you didn't read it doesn't mean you are not bound by it. It is your responsibility to read it.

I agree, Snos. I thought the "ignorance of the law is not an excuse" approach was pretty much the standard applied to contracts or signed agreements, etc...

[Alex]

Unfortunately, I think that's a pretty well-established idea in U.S. law.

(Which is why, by the way, tickets at parking garages say things like "this ticket is your contract with us -- Read It" because they can't hold you to that "contract" if you don't read what it says.)

[judi]

I dont know how I feel about her being charged or her daughter...I am just so appalled by all of it.  How could a mother condon this type of behavior and even participate in it????

As parents, and grandparents, most of us try to teach our children to be tolerate, caring to others...even those you dont like.  How cruel was all of this....there is no law that can make someone be a decent person..

what is wrong here...what is wrong with this mother????

Reminded me of that mother a few years ago that killed one of her daugher's rivals on the cheerleading team...

no law is needed,...if I lived near her she would get all the punishment for this outrageous hideous immoral behavior that she did and let, promoted, her daughter to do..what do the amish do...shun....that is what I would like to see everyone shun her...make it clear this is unacceptable in any way or form

[Lucy]

Yes, that wicked mother deserves to be indicted.  What a horrid lesson to teach her daughter!

  She was indicted.  Did you mean convicted?

[Lucy]

  I'm not sure what I think shoudl happen to the daughter.  I'd say school discipline, but don't have any reason for the schools to get involved.  Maybe some diversion program. The daughter is child.  Kids are cruel to each other all the time.  ONe of the lessons we try to teach our children is not to be cruel.  I don't think she had the life experience, nor that it was necessarily ag appropriate for her to forsee severe emotional distress to the other person.  I guess I'd go for some kind of diversionary program for the daughter.

  As for the mother, I think it's reasonably foreseeable that taunting someone can lead to severe emotional distress.  Heck, she knew that was the purpose.  She's also old enough to know that sometimes severe emotional distress results in very bad things.  Whether she forsaw a suicide is sort of irrelevant - you take the victim as you get them. 

  Does she deserve 20 years?  I'm not sure.  Maybe.  Is what she did worse than someone who kills someone in the heat of passion?  I think it's worse.  It's different.  So it's easy to think that she might not know the seriousness of her actions.  But murder doesn't require that you intend to kill.  Just that you intend to harm with a hurtful weapon (or something like that.  I'll go check it out later.)  In this case I don't think she intended for the girl to commit suiside, but she did intend to harm the girl.  As they say on Law & Order, "intent follows the bullet."
I.E. if you shoot a gun in the end in joyful glee, and it falls and kills someone, instead of making a dent in the sidewalk, intent is imputed to the shooting of the bullet.

[Lucy]

oh yea.  I don't buy the contract issue.  I can see if the contract was convoluted (that's been upheld before.)  In this case she violated rules that I assume exist even though I've never read the entire contract through myself.  (or maybe I've been around and listened to the moderators here justify various moderation action because of legal liability for behaving badly)

  Actually, I'm not clear what rule she violated.  I realized I'm assuming the lines she crossed - but lines of decency and legal lines are not always identical.  Have to look that up after dinnerl