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Dharun Ravi -- the former Rutgers University student who used a webcam to spy on his roommate, Tyler Clementi, kissing another man in their dorm room, tweeted about it and set up another viewing for other students days later -- was convicted Friday on charges of committing a hate crime, invasion of privacy and bias intimidation.
After finding out about Ravi’s actions in September 2010, Clementi committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge.
Ravi, 20, faces up to a decade in prison and potential deportation to India after being convicted on all 15 counts. He was acquitted on some components of the bias intimidation charges. In some instances, the jury didn’t find that Ravi had invaded Clementi’s privacy “with the purpose to intimidate” because of sexual orientation, but it determined Ravi did know his actions would cause Clementi to be intimidated because of his sexual orientation. In other words, the jury decided Ravi was motivated by bias, but didn’t necessarily intend to harm Clementi.
The jury also found Ravi guilty on counts of tampering with evidence (for deleting text messages and tweets, and posting false tweets), witness tampering (for trying to influence what student Molly Wei, who testified against Ravi as part of a plea deal, told police), and hindering apprehension or prosecution (for lying to police, preventing a witness from providing testimony and destroying evidence).
Ravi turned down a plea deal last year and declined to testify in the trial. The jury deliberated for three days.
The case has generated new state and federal laws aimed at combatting cyberbullying.
