Today was the day Lori Drew, the Missouri mother known as the MySpace Mom, was to be sentenced for violating the terms of service for the  MySpace account she used to taunt a former friend of her daughter. The girl, Megan Meier, hanged herself in October, 2006. Drew was not charged with causing the 13-year-old Meier to commit suicide, but the federal case against her was widely seen as some sort of payback for the girl's death.

Last November a jury only found Drew guilty of three misdemeanor counts. Court watchers should have known, though, that Judge George Wu was not going to let a sentence on this straightforward verdict go gently into that good night. As this afternoon's session dragged on, spectators, sensing another delay, grew restless as Wu posed hypothetical scenario after hypothetical scenario for a trial that was already over — in essence, asking the prosecution and defense how he should rule. By 3:10 p.m., when Wu began talking about having to review trial transcripts and more case law, everyone knew there'd be no verdict today.

Their fears were justified: Wu ended business today by scheduling

another sentencing hearing — for July 2. By then he may have made up

his mind. Maybe.

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