Meet Danny Vice, Blogger
Filed under: News
Officials in St. Charles County, Missouri, say they're done with the Megan Meier suicide case. Megan is the 13-year-old kid who had a falling out with a neighbor girl. With a couple of others, the neighbor's mother then used a fake MySpace persona, that of the handsome Josh Evans, to woo Megan. After a few weeks, "Josh" turned on Megan, telling her the world would be a better place without her. Megan hanged herself.
This month, prosecutors announced that no crime had been committed by Lori Drew, the now 48-year-old mother who played some part in the MySpace persona. At least one blogger's not convinced. "Danny Vice," of the Weekly Vice, cruised by this page weeks ago and tried to post a comment that named Lori Drew. At the time, NPR was not naming the mother.
I found myself wondering what, exactly, people like Danny wanted. Some referred to them as cybervigilantes, a virtual counterpart to the vandals who were throwing paintballs through the Drews' windows. While some of the bloggers seemed to make a mission of outing the Drews -- complete with addresses and phone numbers -- I learned that others, like Danny, have a more far-reaching goal.
Danny agreed to talk to us on the condition that we not reveal much about his life, including his real name. Danny says he doesn't consider himself a vigilante. What he wants is not blood justice at the hands of bloggers, he says, but for prosecutors to consider the case as more than a possible matter of harassment.
"I don't see it as a harassment case," he says. "I see it as a predatory case because of the methods used by the adult in the story. When you go and you study the methodology of child predators, there's many, many similarities."
For the record, St. Charles County prosecuting attorney Jack Banas says Drew wasn't home when "Josh" sent his final messages. As Steve Pokin writes in the St. Charles Journal, Banas found there was no intent to stalk, endanger or harass. "They did it so they could find out what one little girl was saying about another little girl," Banas told the press.
Where does that leave Danny Vice? You can find out from him, on his blog.
10:12 AM ET | 12-11-2007 | permalink
