For the parents of Megan Meier, the criminal charges handed down in California were a validation, finally, that their daughter's suicide deserved justice.

For Lori Drew, Megan's one-time neighbor and the target of the federal indictment, the charges were anything but justice — more like a flimsy legal move from clear across the country, her lawyer said.

And for U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien, the charges were a clear message about the tragic consequences of cyber bullying.

Those charges on Thursday moved the 2006 death of 13-year-old Megan, of Dardenne Prairie, before the federal court system and back into the national spotlight.

O'Brien called a news conference in Los Angeles to announce the grand jury indictment against Drew: one count of conspiracy and three counts of illegally accessing MySpace computers "that she used to inflict emotional distress on a child."

Prosecutors were able to file the charges in Los Angeles because the MySpace social networking site has its headquarters in the area. The key allegation: Drew helped create a fake MySpace profile and used it to harass Megan.

The indictment came more than 18 months after Megan received an e-mail telling her, "The world would be a better place without you," then hanged herself in her bedroom. She thought the message was from a boy with whom she had struck up an online relationship. The boy didn't exist.

Prosecutors are using a novel approach — applying a law used mainly to go after computer hackers — in a case that has come to symbolize Internet harassment.

But Megan's father, Ron Meier, was not worried about legal strategies on Thursday.

He sat at his kitchen table beside his girlfriend watching Megan's smiling image flash across a television screen. He couldn't wait to hear what the news anchor had to say.

"Part of me thought it would never happen," he said about the criminal charges against Drew.

Dean Steward, one of Drew's attorneys, called the charges "creative," and vowed to try to get the case thrown out.

"How do you take these facts and jam it into the statute that they've apparently jammed it into?" he said.

He also said that he would challenge the venue.

"Why is this in Los Angeles?" he said. "How is it that the local prosecutor and the U.S. attorney (in St. Louis) looked at it and found no crime?"

Federal prosecutors in St. Louis and the St. Charles County prosecutor passed on trying to build a case.

O'Brien's office, though, took its own look at the case.

On Thursday, O'Brien said Drew and unnamed "co-conspirators" violated MySpace's rules and terms of service by using false information to set up an account.

They used that account to obtain Megan's personal information and proceeded to "harass" Megan, O'Brien said, in an act with "horrendous ramifications."

Prosecutors are relying on a federal fraud statute that is typically used against people who steal information from government, law enforcement or military computers. They said this was the first time the statute is being used to prosecute a case of deception on a social networking site.

Sal Hernandez, assistant director of the FBI's Los Angeles office, said Drew and the others "exploited a young girl's weakness."

"This case is just another lesson teaching us that malicious acts may have unforeseen consequences," Hernandez said.

Drew was asked to turn herself in next month in St. Louis. If convicted, she could face five years in prison for each charge, although her lawyer said that more than a year total would be unlikely.

THE MESSAGES

The indictment says Drew and her co-conspirators in September 2006 set up a bogus MySpace account — that of a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans — and used a fake photo.

The co-conspirators of Drew, who used to run a coupon book business, are not named. But Drew's former employee, Ashley Grills, told "Good Morning America" last month that she, Drew and Drew's daughter created the account to find out what Megan was saying (Grills told the program that she'd been granted immunity in exchange for her cooperation in the case).

Megan and the Drews' daughter had been friends but had a falling-out. The Drews heard that Megan was talking about their daughter.

"Josh Evans" struck up an online relationship with Megan, whose parents have said had long struggled with depression. Josh and Megan chatted for a few weeks.

On Oct. 7, Megan got a message informing her that Josh was moving away.

Megan wrote back to Josh and later gave him a cell phone number and wrote, "I love you so much," the indictment says.

Then, on Oct. 16, Megan got a final message. Grills, who was 18 at the time, told ABC that she typed it: "The world would be a better place without you."

"Within an hour of receiving that last message … Megan Meier went up to her bedroom and hanged herself," O'Brien said at the news conference.

Lori Drew and the co-conspirators later deleted the Josh Evans account, the indictment says, and Drew told a child who knew about the account "to keep her mouth shut."

Steward, Drew's lawyer, said his client never typed any of the messages, although she was aware of the MySpace page.

He also said that there are "a number" of bogus claims about the case that have been floated on the Internet.

Last year, St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Jack Banas said the circumstances surrounding Megan's death did not amount to a state crime. On Thursday, he said his opinion has not changed.

U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said Thursday the only possible charge her office thought would apply was "transmitting a threat." But she said her office had worked with O'Brien's and said that she was "pleased that there's a prosecution that's being brought."

Heidi Rummel, a former federal prosecutor in Los Angeles who is now a law professor at the University of Southern California, questioned the charges against Drew.

"What they did seems horrible in retrospect, given that it resulted in a suicide, but are the federal criminal statutes the way to address that harm?" she asked.

"It's taking teenage gossip and banter to another level, but we've never criminalized that conduct," Rummel added.

Another USC law professor, Rebecca Lonergan, also questioned the use of the fraud statute.

"I'm not sure that the plain language of this statute covers the conduct that took place here," she said.

Ron Meier said he hopes the charges force the Drews to feel some of "the pain and suffering that I'm going to feel for the rest of my life."

He and his wife, Tina, started divorce proceedings months after Megan's death. That divorce is almost final.

Tina Meier said Thursday she was thrilled about the indictment: "I've been waiting a year and a half for some vindication."

Tina, once a real estate agent, is now working full time as head of the Megan Meier Foundation, touring the country to speak about suicide and Internet harassment.

"Bottom line," she said, "is that there is finally a court system that believes in this case."

rpatrick@post-dispatch.com | 314-621-5154