Suicide of Tyler Clementi
Defendant Guilty in Rutgers Case
Matt Rainey for The New York Times
Dharun Ravi, center, and his lawyers, Philip Nettl, left, and Steven
Altman at Superior Court in Middlesex County, N.J., on Friday.
By KATE ZERNIKE
Published: March 16, 2012
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. —A jury convicted a former Rutgers University
student, Dharun Ravi, of hate crimes for using a webcam to spy on his
roommate kissing another man in their dorm room.
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The jury also found Mr. Ravi guilty of tampering with evidence and
witnesses for trying to change Twitter and text messages in which he
had encouraged others to watch the webcam.
Mr. Ravi's roommate, Tyler Clementi, jumped to his death from the
George Washington Bridge three days after Mr. Ravi viewed him on the
webcam. The case became a symbol of the struggles facing gay, lesbian
and bisexual teenagers and the problem of cyberbullying in an era when
laws governing hate crimes have not kept up with evolving technology.
Mr. Ravi looked down but did not seem to react as the jury forewoman
read the verdict. Mr. Clementi's parents and family sat with arms
around each other, leaning forward as they listened to the forewoman
speak.
Mr. Ravi, 20, was not charged in Mr. Clementi's death. .
The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for about two days,
following more than three weeks of testimony.
The case was rare because almost none of the facts were in dispute.
Mr. Ravi's lawyers agreed that he had set up a webcam on his computer,
then gone into a friend's room and viewed Mr. Clementi kissing a man
he had invited to his room three weeks after arriving at Rutgers in
September 2010. Mr. Ravi sent Twitter and text messages telling others
what he had seen, and urged them to watch a second viewing, then
deleted messages after Mr. Clementi killed himself.
That account had been established by a long trail of electronic
evidence — from Twitter feeds and cellphone records, dormitory
surveillance cameras, dining hall swipe cards and a "netflow" analysis
showing when and how computers in the dormitory connected.
What the jury had to decide, and what set off debate outside as well
as inside the courtroom, was what Mr. Ravi and Mr. Clementi were
thinking at the time.
Did Mr. Ravi set up the webcam because he had a pretty good idea that
he would see Mr. Clementi in an intimate moment? Did he target Mr.
Clementi and the man he was with because they were gay? And was Mr.
Clementi in fear?
Without Mr. Clementi to speak for himself, that last question was
perhaps the most difficult to determine, and questions the jurors sent
from their deliberation room suggested they struggled with it.
The prosecution had pointed out that Mr. Clementi had checked Mr.
Ravi's Twitter feed — where Mr. Ravi told others he had seen his
roommate "kissing a dude" — 38 times in the days after the first
webcam viewing. Records showed that Mr. Clementi had gone online to
request a room change, and a resident assistant testified that Mr.
Clementi had complained to him.
But the defense argued that if Mr. Clementi had felt intimidated, he
would have accepted when the resident assistant offered him another
place to stay, and he would not have invited his boyfriend back to the
room.
Mr. Clementi's suicide came up only in passing during the trial, when
a lawyer asked the boyfriend how he had learned of Mr. Clementi's
death. The man, who testified under tight cover and was identified in
court only as M.B. because he was considered a victim in the case,
testified that he had read about it in a newspaper, as the suicide
prompted international attention.
Still, the death defined the trial, turning what might have been a
peeping Tom case or, as the resident assistant said, "a roommate
issue" into something far more grave.
Mr. Clementi's parents, brothers and a huddle of friends sat on one
side of the courtroom. On the other sat Mr. Ravi's parents, who
brought him here from India when he was young, and their friends,
including several who had served as character witnesses for Mr. Ravi,
testifying he was not biased against gays.
The testimony painted a picture of two college freshman, both from top
performing high schools in well-off suburbs, who could not have been
more different. Mr. Clementi was shy and reserved, an accomplished
violinist who had only recently told his parents he was gay. Mr. Ravi
was a boastful computer wizard and ultimate Frisbee player who
communicated with friends constantly via Twitter, text message and
iChat.
Mr. Ravi's lawyers argued that he was "a kid" with little experience
of homosexuality who had stumbled into a situation that scared him.
M.B., who was 30 at the time, had made him nervous, the lawyers
argued, so he set up his webcam to keep an eye on his belongings. Mr.
Ravi, they argued, was being sarcastic when he had sent messages
daring friends to connect to his webcam, or declaring that he was
having a "viewing party."
But prosecutors argued that his frequent messages mentioning Mr.
Clementi's sexuality proved that Mr. Ravi was upset about having a gay
roommate from the minute he discovered it through a computer search
several weeks before they arrived at Rutgers in fall 2010.
More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/17/nyregion/defendant-guilty-in-rutgers-case.html
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
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