Rutgers student who secretly videotaped roommate texted friend about ‘viewing party’


Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi killed himself just days after his encounter with another man was streamed live online, drawing attention to the issue of cyber bullying in schools and colleges nationwide.

Dharun Ravi texted a high school friend that Rutgers University students were having a “viewing party with a bottle of bacardi and beer” to watch an intimate encounter between his roommate and another man streamed online, reinforcing the prosecution’s contention that Ravi wanted to invade the privacy of Tyler Clementi and was biased against gays.

Ravi encouraged his friend Michelle Huang to take a look as well, explaining he had a webcam pointed at Clementi’s bed and “the monitor is off so he can’t see you,” she testified March 5 at Ravi’s trial.

Another text from Ravi to Huang read: “Yeah, keep the gays away.”

It was some of the most damaging testimony to date, with prosecutors using Ravi’s own words to try to convince jurors that he is anti-gay and not only planned to watch a second intimate encounter between Clementi and his guest, but invited others to watch as well.

The texts contradict the defense’s contention that Ravi used the webcam because he was concerned that Clementi’s guest, known only as M.B. to protect his identity, would steal his iPad.

Ravi’s attorneys, though, have been successful in getting prosecution witnesses to testify that Ravi never spewed any hatred toward Clementi and did not have an issue with his sexual orientation.

Ravi, 20, of Plainsboro, N.J., faces multiple counts of invasion of privacy, hindering apprehension, and bias intimidation—a hate crime that carries the heftiest punishment of up to 10 years in prison. In order for prosecutors to prove bias intimidation, they must show that Ravi intimidated Clementi because of his sexual orientation. Clementi, of Ridgewood, N.J., killed himself just days after his first encounter with M.B. was streamed live online, drawing attention to the issues of cyber bullying and online privacy in schools and colleges nationwide.

Prosecutors said that first encounter took place on Sept. 19, 2010, when Ravi and his dorm mate Molly Wei watched Clementi and M.B. kissing via the webcam he had set up. At the time, Ravi posted a tweet saying he was in Wei’s room and had just seen his roommate “making out with a dude.”

Wei—who avoided criminal prosecution by taking a plea that required her to testify against Ravi—then briefly activated the camera again to show her friends and roommate.

But according to testimony from dorm mate Lokesh Ojha, when Ravi learned Clementi’s companion was visiting again on Sept. 21, he enlisted Ojha’s help to position the camera directly at Clementi’s bed.

In a tweet that evening, Ravi invited others with iChat to video chat him between 9:30 p.m. and midnight to watch because “it’s happening again.”

On March 5, Assistant Middlesex County Prosecutor Chris Schellhorn walked Huang through a series of texts she exchanged with Ravi on Sept. 21.

Huang, who attends Cornell University, asked Ravi if he had “really” seen Clementi “make out with some guy.” She said she learned about it from reading Ravi’s first tweet.

He responded, “Yeah omg molly saw it too. He was older and creepy and def(initely) from the internet.”

When she jokingly suggested that Clementi’s friend might be in Ravi’s bed after he told her Clementi had asked Ravi when he was coming home that night, Ravi responded, “I set my computer to alert me if anyone is in it when I’m not there. Lol.”

He continued the string of conversation by saying, “My webcam checks my bed. Haha. I got so creeped out after Sunday.”

And later, “Yeah, keep the gays away.”

That evening, she said, he texted her encouraging her to access video chat to watch the second intimate encounter.

“Do it for real. I have it pointed at his bed. And the monitor is off so he can’t see you,” Ravi wrote to her.

He told her he set up an automatic accept feature and had tested it and it worked.

When she replied that she would check it out, he warned her, “Be careful it could get nasty.”

Huang said Ravi then texted her, “Omfg people are having a viewing party with a bottle of bacardi and beer in this kids room for my roommate.”

She said that she messaged Ravi the next day to let him know she hadn’t attempted to view any footage but asked how it went. Huang said on the stand that she never intended to watch any live images because she had no interest.

Ravi told her that “it got messed up and didn’t work.”

On Sept. 23, she said Ravi texted her that Clementi had committed suicide. It was one of the few times Clementi’s death, which Ravi is not charged with causing or contributing to, came up in the trial.

When Huang asked Ravi if he knew why Clementi would kill himself, he responded, “No idea. He was quiet all the time and had no friends so I guess it makes sense.”

Last week, Wei testified that she agreed to keep Clementi’s intimate encounter a secret because it was so shocking to see the images—but that it wasn’t under wraps for long.

”First of all, it was shocking. It felt wrong. We didn’t expect to see that. And now that what we did, it was like we shouldn’t have seen it,” she told jurors. ”We didn’t want people to know what had happened.”

But within minutes, she testified, she and Ravi were online chatting with friends about seeing two men kissing. And within the hour, Wei said, she agreed to show a few seconds of the video stream to four other women who visited her dorm room.

Still, she said, Ravi did not intend to humiliate his roommate.

Wei, 19, was charged initially but entered a program that will allow her to keep her record clean if she meets a list of conditions, including doing community service, working, or attending school full-time. She also agreed to cooperate with authorities and testify truthfully in Ravi’s trial.

She said she has completed about 250 of the 300 hours of community service required.

Also last week, jurors heard from university official William O’Brien that Clementi requested a room change about 30 hours after the alleged spying—and a day before he killed himself.

O’Brien, associate director of residence life at Rutgers, told jurors that his staff did not see Clementi’s request for a new roommate until after he was reported missing from campus.

Copyright (c) 2012, The Record (Hackensack, N.J.), with additional reporting from the Associated Press and eSchool Media. Visit The Record online at www.NorthJersey.com. Distributed by MCT Information Services.

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