Roommate Charged With Hate Crime in Rutgers Suicide

[Janice]

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/04/20/ro...tgers-suicide/

Roommate Charged With Hate Crime in Rutgers Suicide

TRENTON, N.J. -- A former Rutgers University freshman was indicted Wednesday on a hate crime charge after allegedly using a webcam to spy on a same-sex encounter involving his roommate, who committed suicide shortly afterward in a case that started a national conversation on bullying.

A 15-count indictment was handed up Wednesday by a Middlesex County grand jury against Dharun Ravi, of Plainsboro, who had already faced invasion of privacy charges along with another student, Molly Wei.

The indictment charges Ravi with bias intimidation, invasion of privacy, witness and evidence tampering, and other charges stemming from the suicide of 18-year-old Tyler Clementi in September. The indictment said charges against Wei would not be presented to the grand jury "at this time."



Dharun Ravi, seen here in his 2010 high school yearbook photo, was indicted Wednesday on several charges, including bias intimidation and invasion of privacy.

Clementi jumped off the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River shortly after authorities say Ravi and Wei used a webcam to peek at his liaison. Lawyers for Ravi say the webcam stream was viewed on only a single computer and did not show the men having sex.

The indictment says Ravi targeted Clementi and invaded his privacy knowing that Clementi would be intimidated because of his sexual orientation.

According to the indictment, Ravi deleted a Twitter post letting others know how they could view a second encounter involving Clementi and replaced it with a false tweet; deleted text messages sent and received by witnesses; and gave false information to police - all actions intended to mislead investigators.

If convicted of the most serious bias charge, Ravi could face five to 10 years in prison.

Lawyers for Ravi and Wei didn't immediately return calls seeking comment.

The death of Clementi, a promising violinist in his first weeks at college, came amid a string of high-profile suicides of young people who were gay or perceived to be gay.

Partly because of his high-profile death and the other circumstances surrounding his suicide, Clementi became a face of the issue.

President Barack Obama and celebrities including talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and sex columnist Dan Savage have talked publicly about his death and said that young gays and lesbians need to know that life gets better.

Clementi's parents, Jane and Joe Clementi, said in a statement released Wednesday that they were eager for the case to move forward in order to "reinforce the standards of acceptable conduct in our society."

"The grand jury indictment spells out cold and calculated acts against our son Tyler by his former college roommate," they said. "If these facts are true, as they appear to be, then it is important for our criminal justice system to establish clear accountability under the law."

[Janice]

This story is so darn sad. At the very least, he should be charged with manslaughter.

[Mr. Television]

They should throw the book at him. I hope he rots in jail.

[AKA]

Breaks my heart. I'm so fortunate that I didn't grow up in the age of cyber-bullying.

Being charged with a hate crime is not enough: they need to throw the book at him.

[Mr. Television]

Originally Posted by AKA

Breaks my heart. I'm so fortunate that I didn't grow up in the age of cyber-bullying.

Being charged with a hate crime is not enough: they need to throw the book at him.

I'm so glad too. I can just imagine some of the things that would have been said about me on the internet by some of my so called classmates.

[catlover79]

Originally Posted by Stuck In The '70's

I'm so glad too. I can just imagine some of the things that would have been said about me on the internet by some of my so called classmates.

Same here!!

[OH Nuts!]

Echoing others, I hope they THROW the book at him. If ever there was a low-life who deserves double-digit time, its this cyber creep bully.

[Family Ties Forever!]

So sad. Bullies are cowards. They should be ashamed of themselves. Hopefully the guy will spend years in prison for what he did.

[catlover79]

What's also worth noting is that the long-time soap One Life to Live (which was served with cancellation notice last week) is now doing a storyline about cyber-bullying. With the show set to air its last episode in January, it looks like they are going to have to really speed the story up because of time constraints. It's a real shame because it's a great way to educate the public about such an awful subject. Hopefully, the plot will still work out OK and respect the memory of such victims as Tyler Clementi.

[Retro4Life]

We live in a culture that values conformity (conformity to things I don't generally agree with, but conformity nonetheless) and anyone who steps out of those bonds is targeted, just like a pack of animals will often shun the "different" one.

I wish we had evolved past things like this, but obviously we haven't. As Jenny rightly said, bullies are cowards because they can't deal with the thought of someone being different. It scares them because their minds are so limited they don't know how to process it, so they seek to destroy those who are different.

No, this guy didn't beat on Tyler Clementi but he did something that's worse in a way; he exposed something extremely personal about him without his permission, knowing it would hurt him. What a cruel, petty and sad human being this man is.

[catlover79]

^ Exactly.