Rutgers Webcam Spying Case a Hate Crime, Jurors Conclude

Tyler Clementi

A former Rutgers University student was found guilty Friday on all 15 charges he faced for using a webcam to spy on his college roommate having sex with another man. Charges included invasion of privacy and bias intimidation. Dharun Ravi, now 20, invited friends through text messages and Twitter encouraging them to view the webcam. Three days after the incident, his roommate, Tyler Clementi, jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge.

Ravi’s attorneys did not dispute the facts of the case, according to The New York Times, agreeing that he had indeed set up a webcam on his computer and went to a friend’s room where he saw Clementi kissing a man he had met on the Internet. Two weeks later he did the same thing, inviting friends over text messages and Twitter to watch. After Clementi’s death, Ravi altered or deleted some messages, resulting in charges of evidence tampering.

Struggling over whether to interpret Ravi’s actions as deliberately meant to intimidate Clementi because he was gay, jurors met for 13 hours over three days following 13 days of testimony.

Ravi faces 5 to 10 years in prison and possible deportation to his native India as a result of his conviction.