Dharun Ravi, Tyler Clementi's Roommate, Hit With Bias Charge In Rutgers Suicide

TRENTON, N.J. -- A former Rutgers University freshman was indicted Wednesday on bias intimidation and other charges after allegedly using a webcam to spy on a same-sex encounter involving his roommate, who committed suicide shortly afterward in a case that started a national conversation on bullying.

A 15-count indictment was handed up Wednesday by a Middlesex County grand jury against Dharun Ravi, of Plainsboro, who had already faced invasion of privacy charges along with another student, Molly Wei.

The indictment charges Ravi with bias, invasion of privacy, witness and evidence tampering, and other charges stemming from the suicide of 18-year-old Tyler Clementi in September. The indictment said charges against Wei would not be presented to the grand jury "at this time."

Clementi jumped off the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River shortly after authorities say Ravi and Wei used a webcam to peek at his liaison. Lawyers for Ravi say the webcam stream was viewed only on a single computer and did not show the men having sex.

The death of Clementi, a promising violinist in his first weeks at college, came amid a string of high-profile suicides of young people who were gay or perceived to be gay.

Partly because of his high-profile death and the other circumstances surrounding his suicide, Clementi became a face of the issue.

President Barack Obama and celebrities including talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and sex columnist Dan Savage have talked publicly about his death and said that young gays and lesbians need to know that life gets better.

Comments

[themightyabealrd]

07:23 AM on 04/23/2011

It's surely invasion of privacy, and I feel Ravi's and Wei's actions contributed to Clementi's dstress in a big way. But it's possible they did not see it as invading somebody's privacy....because they were treating Tyler as a thing-as an object suitable for fun or amusement. Which is not to say charges shouldn't be brought-they surely ought to be. But we keep on treating our fellow human beings as 'the other'; politicians do it, all sorts of people do it. So young people adopt this set of behaviors. And Ravi would want to make the distinction between himself and his roomie-"Check it out-he's gay and I'm not...let's all have a good chuckle at this person who's not like us!", so there is reassurance value for an insecure teenaged boy right there.
It's all about objectifying and labelling and setting ourselves apart/above those we see as different from ouselves...and being convinced that 'different' always equals 'bad' or 'inferior'. That this particular case involved a young man who was apparently homosexual is noteworthy, but the heartless behavior we see here gets directed at all sorts of folks. And our apparently helpless addiction to labels (applied sans benefit of anything resembling forethought) only makes it worse.

[bbplayer5]

05:04 PM on 04/22/2011

This is going to far. This is going to set a dangerous precedent in which if you say boo to a gay person and he dies of a heart attack you could be charged with murder. These kids were playing a joke that thousands of kids do across colleges, it doesn't make it right but it happens. It is not their fault he committed suicide.

[bintalshamsa]

05:15 PM on 04/22/2011

Invading someone's privacy is not a joke. Recording someone having sex without their permission is not a joke. The fact that it happened doesn't mean we have to accept it nor does it mean that we shouldn't prosecute it whenever possible. It is their fault that he committed suicide. To pretend that their crimes and torments weren't the cause of his suicide is just ridiculous.

[cminca]

07:06 PM on 04/22/2011

Ravi is not being charged with murder, or manslaughter, or anything else related to Tyler's death. He's being charged with a bias crime as part of the invasion of privacy.

[Prince Blake]

02:57 PM on 04/22/2011

Recenly my wife was directed by a woman through a machine which sees through clothes and stops at the skin. At another airport, a screener talks-through the screening of a young girl explaining that it's okay to use the back of the hand to touch "sensitive" (read private) areas. These are far more serious breaches of privacy invasion in my opinion. Someone using a camera in their own room should not be reason for great alarm unless its putting out high doses of radiation like the machines at the airports do.

[bintalshamsa]

05:16 PM on 04/22/2011

Your wife CHOSE to go through that machine. Clementi did not choose to have his intimate encounter taped and viewed by strangers. You might not be alarmed if someone decided to do this to your wife, but there are plenty of folks who would.

[Prince Blake]

06:12 PM on 04/22/2011

Yes, my wife chose to fly to take care of her mother in Japan as opposed to say, take a yacht, or swim! Poor thing has been coughing for weeks...first radiated at the airport and then radiated again by the sad policy of seaside nuclear plants at low elevations. We all need to build up our immune system to fend off those who make poor decisions.

[minusthefactor]

02:37 PM on 04/22/2011

Dharun Ravi should never again be allowed to enroll in a school of higher learning. He has proven beyond doubt that he is incapable of learning right from wrong. Why keep wasting desk space to trying to educate mental perverts and sickos?

[minusthefactor]

02:30 PM on 04/22/2011

This guy shuold be charged with conpiracy to commit grave harm in the death of his roommate.

[reddy52]

08:35 PM on 04/22/2011

Good luck proving that.

[ResistImperialism]

11:14 AM on 04/22/2011

If a good 'ole white boy had pulled this prank on a Chinese-American or Indian-American boy, would he get this same kind of indictments? Or would he be "boy being a boy"?

[mike2800]

09:18 PM on 05/23/2011

Yes.

[sweetdisposition]

04:05 AM on 04/22/2011

there are so many videos on facebook that violates others' privacies---yet when it happens to involve a gay student it is automatically classified as a hate crime? i'm not saying it isn't a crime---just not a hate crime.

[Lisa Shields]

08:28 AM on 04/22/2011

Interesting perspective.
So violating someone's privacy is ok?
How often do you tape your friends or roommates sexual encounters?
How often do you stream them?
How can you consider this ok?

[practiceempathy]

12:54 PM on 04/22/2011

Wow.

[Jeany]

12:08 AM on 04/22/2011

Shame on you.

[minusthefactor]

02:33 PM on 04/22/2011

Ditto that.

To make lite of a life lost and try and turn it into some sort of a racist episode is nothing short of the product of a morbidly obscene mind.

[cminca]

06:15 PM on 04/21/2011

There are people commenting that the indictment is over reaching. That it is political. That Tyler's suicide was his own fault.

Well--no matter what you say the truth is that Ravi isn't being charged with causing Tyler's suicide.

No matter what you say an indictment was handed down with 15 charges against him. He will have access to the legal system to either clear him or not.

No matter what you say there is anti-bias legislation on the books in New Jersey. It was enacted by the representatives of the state. It is being applied and if the prosecution can't make a credible case--than Ravi won't be charged with a bias crime.

But understand--there is a reason for the legislation. Because bullies sometimes attack people based on race, creed, color, religion and--YES--actual or perceived sexual orientation. You may not like it--but it is on the books and it is being applied. Get over it.

And know something else. We're here. We're not going anywhere. We're gonna use our money and our connections to strengthen laws to protect us.

And we're gonna fight like hell to see that people who victimize others are dealt with to the full extent of the law.

Tyler's voice was silenced. So was Matthew's. So were the voices of thousands more.

And that pisses me off. And millions more like me. And that is scaring the hell out of you--which is why you're making these remarks. Be afraid.

[akababs]

10:25 PM on 04/21/2011

America is a bully nation. In fact, we celebrate the bully and the renegade, the doing it my way mentality.

Tyler's voice was silenced because he jumped off a bridge. His parents had 18 or so years and the responsibility for preparing him to deal with the disappointments and frustrations and evils of life?

Just so you know, I am not afraid.

[cminca]

09:43 AM on 04/22/2011

And you probably worship a god that told you to honor the "least among you."

Hypocrite.

[Jason N]

10:00 AM on 04/22/2011

"Just so you know, I am not afraid."

Of course your not straight, white Christian male...

[EricBishop]

03:41 PM on 04/21/2011

This kid should never spend another free day until he's in his late forties. Our children need to be free from this type of invasion when they're at an institution of higher learning. The actions that lead directly to this kid's death are objectively aggravated by the fact that this kid was gay. We need more formidable protections for people that disliked for certain reasons. I think 20-25 year sentence should be imposed, perhaps more if similar incidents do not dramatically decline in the future.

[Jason N]

04:11 PM on 04/21/2011

You're not going to get people to agree with you so you can make a point about "blood lust" from "libruls." Blatantly obvious what you're doing with this post when viewed against your others.

[EricBishop]

04:16 PM on 04/21/2011

You're a genius. You misspelled liberals though.

[ResistImperialism]

11:11 AM on 04/22/2011

Stop with the hyperbole, he should only be charged with violation of privacy. If you really wanna go after those who genuinely hate gays with all their being, then go after the various Christian churches who preach hate every Sunday across the armpit of America.

[bintalshamsa]

05:30 PM on 04/22/2011

This isn't some zero sum situation. We can do both. We can go after those bigots who perpetrate crimes against LGBTQ folks in the way that Ravi and Wei did AND we can go after those who use the pulpit to preach hatred. There's enough room for all of us to attack the problem of bigotry from different angles.

[cminca]

03:24 PM on 04/21/2011

Flagged as abusive.

And since Ravi isn't being charged with causing Tyler's death--your post is also inaccurate.

[EricBishop]

03:35 PM on 04/21/2011

So, exactly what evidence are they going to use to establish that the kid was intimidated?

[ricchh]

02:12 PM on 04/21/2011

I hope they are also charging the girl that did the video with him.

[Jason N]

02:14 PM on 04/21/2011

Indictment pending, she won't get near as much as Ravi is being charged with (probably just accessory charges if that), especially if she's smart and cuts a deal to testify against Ravi.

[Ben Cohn]

02:07 PM on 04/21/2011

"the indictment charges Ravi with bias, invasion of privacy, witness and evidence tampering, and other charges stemming from the suicide of 18-year-old Tyler Clementi in September."

Ok I get most of the charges but a charge based on "bias"? What is this? If this is a hate crime law it is written INCREDIBLY poorly, and so being a 3L I can't imagine that a hate crime law would be written so poorly. Law that are overly vague are the most common to be thrown out by courts...because its easy for the legislature to fix usually. But what crime is having "bias". And what all does it apply to?

[Jason N]

02:13 PM on 04/21/2011

http://www.nj-statute-info.com/getStatute.php?statute_id=1576

Bias Intimidation. A person is guilty of the crime of bias intimidation if he commits, attempts to commit, conspires with another to commit, or threatens the immediate commission of an offense specified in chapters 11 through 18 of Title 2C of the New Jersey Statutes; N.J.S.2C:33-4; N.J.S.2C:39-3; N.J.S.2C:39-4 or N.J.S.2C:39-5,
(1) with a purpose to intimidate an individual or group of individuals because of race, color, religion, gender, handicap, sexual orientation, or ethnicity; or
(2) knowing that the conduct constituting the offense would cause an individual or group of individuals to be intimidated because of race, color, religion, gender, handicap, sexual orientation, or ethnicity; or
(3) under circumstances that caused any victim of the underlying offense to be intimidated and the victim, considering the manner in which the offense was committed, reasonably believed either that (a) the offense was committed with a purpose to intimidate the victim or any person or entity in whose welfare the victim is interested because of race, color, religion, gender, handicap, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, or (b) the victim or the victim's property was selected to be the target of the offense because of the victim's race, color, religion, gender, handicap, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.

[Ben Cohn]

02:24 PM on 04/21/2011

Thank you...I was right. What a terribly written and overly vague law.

[EricBishop]

02:53 PM on 04/21/2011

So, basically if a person can't stand up for themselves and you do anything that might cause them distress or do anything that might cause someone else to do something that might cause the person distress, you're guilty of this crime.

Yeah, the statute is a pretty big farce.

[17andlife]

12:59 PM on 04/21/2011

i do not agree with this ruling. at all. it was a prank gone wrong. i can understand him being responsible, but not entirely - and certainly this shouldn't be seen as a hate case. there isn't any evidence to which i have seen to jump to the assumption this was motivated out of hatred.
did they go too far. of course. but in the end, Tyler made the choice to take his own life.

what this should be seen as is an example of how there needs to be more support for teens that feel they have reached the end of their rope. i think that is the real lesson to be learned here.
i fear this ruling will have a negative impact that might be hard to move past.

[Jason N]

01:27 PM on 04/21/2011

"i do not agree with this ruling."

This isn't a ruling, it's an indictment.

"there isn't any evidence to which i have seen to jump to the assumption this was motivated out of hatred."

Well considering your knowledge of the case makes you think this is a ruling, I'd wager you haven't read anything but the headline of this article and now think you know every detail of the case.

"it was a prank gone wrong"

It was a crime. A crime is a crime, not a prank. You don't go to jail for yelling boo at someone on Halloween, THAT's a prank. Knowingly filming someone during a sexual encounter with the intent to broadcast it to your friends in order to cause mental anguish is a crime, not a prank

[Supersteel]

03:51 PM on 04/21/2011

What if you yell boo and they have a hearttack? and that causes them mental anguish?

[Supersteel]

11:58 AM on 04/25/2011

I assume your gimme a break rather than posting what i actually said that was bigoted is your concession that you cant' find anything i said that was bigoted. Thx.

[17andlife]

02:06 PM on 04/21/2011

sorry, Ravi, not Davi.

[Jason N]

03:11 PM on 04/21/2011

If your posts ever show up beyond showing in my comments activity, I'll respond to them. Suffice it to say, I can sum up the gist of what my response will be. Sorry for coming off like a jerk, but you came off as ignorant (of the subject, not stupid) and from what you've said in replies, you've read not much beyond this one article. There are numerous ones, earlier ones that go into more detail. It may sound jerky, but I'm frankly tired of doing people's work for them. If you're going to base your opinion of this case off the limited knowledge you gained from this single article that only scratches the surface of the case, that's your problem, not mine. I'm not going to go find the evidence for you, if you really cared and wanted to be informed, you'd find it on your own.

[Doktor Avalanche]

12:51 PM on 04/21/2011

If he ends up doing 10 years in prison he will have to get used to his roommates' activities in a whole new way.

[Sonyx575]

02:34 PM on 04/21/2011

Oh yeah, he'll get turned out in prison real quick.