LOS ANGELES - The jury deciding the cyberharassment case against Lori Drew will be told at next week's trial that the target of her Internet messages killed herself, a judge in Los Angeles ruled Friday. | Video

U.S. District Judge George Wu had signaled Monday that he was inclined to bar any evidence relating the death of Megan Meier, 13, saying it was not related to the crime with which Drew is charged.

The lawyer for Drew, 49, of O'Fallon, Mo., argued that testimony about the suicide would prejudice the jurors. "This jury is just going to decide this by sympathy," the lawyer, H. Dean Steward, had warned in a court filing.

Prosecutors insisted that revealing Megan's death was essential to the jury's understanding of the case, and to allow witnesses to testify about what Drew allegedly did and said after Megan's death.

Moreover, prosecutors said that to support the felony charges, they must show she acted to inflict "severe or extreme emotional distress."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Krause told Wu Friday, "Showing that this victim took the ultimate step of taking her own life shows the level of her distress."

Wu indicated it was a close call. He said he ultimately decided it would be difficult to keep the information away from jurors, given extensive news coverage and a similar plot in a recent episode of TV's "Law and Order." (In that episode, a woman was accused of cyber-bullying a teenager whose presumed suicide turned out to be murder by a boyfriend.)

Wu said jurors would be instructed that the case is not about the suicide and that Drew is not being charged with causing it. Jury selection is set for Tuesday.

Drew is charged under an anti-hacking law with conspiracy and accessing computers without authorization. At issue is whether she criminally violated terms of service of the MySpace online social network, based in California.

Officials said Megan and Drew's daughter were neighbors in Dardenne Prairie and friends who turned into rivals. Prosecutors said that Drew and others created a fake online identity of a boy to befriend Megan and then turn against her.

Linda Deutsch of the Associated Press contributed to this report.