By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

It appears a Missouri woman, Lori Drew, will get away with a MySpace cyberbulling incident that led to the suicide of a teenage girl. That's disappointing news.

The judge in the case, George H. Wu, tentatively dismissed the three misdemeanor convictions against Drew for illegally accessing a computer.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Wu said he was concerned that if Drew was found guilty of violating the terms of service in using MySpace, anyone who violated the terms could be convicted of a crime.... Drew was widely criticized after the 2006 death of eighth-grader Megan Meier, an acquaintance of Drew's daughter.

Granted, the legalities of the case have always been troubling. The prosecutors had to search hard and long to find some way to try to hold Drew responsible for her actions.

But after the convictions, they had hoped Wu would sentence Drew to up to three years in prison. That was far shorter than the 15-20 year sentence that Drew might have faced if she had been convicted of the original felony charge against her in the death.

Now, there appears to be no more punishment from the legal system for Drew, outside the court travails she has endured.

But in this case, a young girl is dead, and the person who at least helped make that death possible will not be prosecuted for her behavior.

It's especially disturbing that the death occurred after Megan got a message telling her "the world would be a better place without you."

She then hung herself.