Lori Drew, 49, who  was indicted in the MySpace hoax that led to the suicide of a 13 years-old girls, pleaded not guilty in a federal court in Washington D.C.

In October 16 2006 Megan Meier of Dardenne Prairie hanged herself .

Lori Drew is accused of creating a fake MySpace identity under the name of “Josh Evans”, a 16 year old boy, making friends and later harassing Megan not long before she committed suicide.

On October 15, 2006, the so-called 16 year-old teenager Josh Evans turned against Megan, sending her negative comments, and ending with a harsh message: “The world would be a better place without you.” According to a police report, Megan later hanged herself in her bedroom closet.

The prosecutors charged Lori Drew with one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization for information used to emotionally distress the girl. For each of the four counts the maximum possible penalty that Lori Drew can receive is of five years in prison. She pleaded not guilty on all charges.

In fact, since the case went public she permanently denied sending hurtful things to the teenager through the Internet.

After the troubling suicide committed by a Megan Meier, state lawmakers voted and gave final approval to a bill which will deal with cyber-harassment.

The bill is covering several aspects of the new wave of technology, identifying as illegal the harassment from computers, text messages and many other electronic devices, besides the well known written and telephone communications.

The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge George Wu and Drew’s trial is scheduled for July 29.