Roommate Charged with Hate Crime in Tyler Clementi Case
Posted: April 20, 2011 Filed under: Crime, GLBT Rights, the internet | Tags: bullying, Dharun Ravi, GLBT rights, hate crimes, Rutgers, Twitter, Tyler Clementi, violation of privacy 9 Comments
Tyler Clementi was a "promising violinist."
Here’s some positive news for those of us who are deeply concerned about the toxic effects of bullying on young people.
A former Rutgers University freshman was indicted Wednesday for secretly viewing a same-sex encounter involving his roommate – who later jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge.
Dharun Ravi, 19, of Plainsboro, N.J., could face up to 5 years in prison if convicted of the top charges in the 15-count indictment announced by Middlesex County prosecutor Bruce Kaplan.
Ravi was charged by a grand jury with bias intimidation, invasion of privacy and witness and evidence tampering for using a webcam to spy on Tyler Clementi’s dorm room date with another man.
It was demonstrated to the Grand Jury that Ravi knew of Clementi’s sexual orientation and deliberately planned to publicly humiliate him. Ravi twice activated a webcam in the room and tried to stream Tyler’s romantic encounters on the internet. After the suicide, Ravi made significant efforts to cover up his behavior and asked friends to cover for him. Ravi’s co-conspiritor Molly Wei had previously been charged with invasion of privacy, along with Ravi, but Wei was not indicted by the Grand Jury. It’s possible that she cooperated with investigators.
Prosecutors have said that Ravi used Wei’s computer in her dorm room to activate a webcam on a computer in his room to view and stream Clementi’s encounter. Prosecutors said Ravi tried the same thing during a second encounter Sept. 21, the day before Clementi’s suicide.
Ravi posted a message on his now-closed Twitter account on Sept. 19 that read: “Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into molly’s room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay.”
Two days later, he wrote on Twitter: “Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes it’s happening again.”
Tyler’s parents, who knew of his sexual orientation, said through their attorney:
“The grand jury indictment spells out cold and calculated acts against our son, Tyler, by his former college roommate,” Clementi’s parents, Jane and Joe Clementi, said in a statement. “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.”
They also said that they hope to start a foundation in their Tyler’s name. Their goal would be to heighten public “awareness about bullying, privacy rights, and the Internet.”
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I’m really glad that NJ has decided to take bullying seriously.
Rutgers needs to be on the hook, too, though. Something is seriously wrong with their roommate screening system, plus Tyler knew what Ravi was doing, complained to the school, and even tried to disable the spy camera when Rutgers refused any help.
I’d be surprised if the parents don’t sue the college, but they probably wanted to wait until these charges were filed.
Seriously,
Did you hear that the MA legislature is going to try to limit collective bargaining rights for public employees? They want cities and towns to be able to unilaterally change the health care plans.
Yeah, so typical of the hypocrisy of this state. Everyone talks a good game at the We Heart Wisconsin rally, but behind closed doors it’s a whole different story. In the event that they fall back on Walsh’s plan, that in itself involves major concessions and basically substitutes binding arbitration for collective bargaining, so how the hell is going backward a “victory”? And who knows where the kabuki dance is headed–they may actually, with the Repubs’ help, pass Ways and Means and eliminate collective bargaining rights in the most labor friendly way possible. Wahoo.
You are so right on this.
I sooooooo hate these people.
It’s unsustainable, I don’t know how much longer people can continue to run flat-out without ever gaining any ground. And I do understand how hamstrung unions are, I do, but how many concessions can you make when you’re never going to regain that ground? They really need to go on the offensive against this framing and these false choices instead of endorsing a plan that will only strip away “some” collective bargaining rights.
At this point and for many years legacy unions function as muscle for capital in making sure the decades long roll backs continue. The panic button was hit in WI because the powers that be want to now fire the unions from their role as working class arm twister. Even as capital took aim at them , the unions kept telling people to return to work….that’s what they do. They are fighting now for their own lunch pail, the fig leaf called : collective bargaining…. which they haven’t used in years and at this point, wouldn’t know how. …they predate Obama’s instant lie down for capital by decades.
The WI unions had of course delivered to Walker all he wanted in the way of cuts after his deliberate bankrupting of state coffers with tax cuts for business …but money wasn’t the whole story. Walker Koch Brothers inc world group wanted the unions as well …oops