Tyler Clementi Case: Judge Considering Details

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — A New Jersey judge is expected to rule this week on whether defense lawyers should see writings by a Rutgers student who committed suicide last year after his roommate allegedly used a webcam to spy on his intimate encounter with another man.

The roommate, Dharun Ravi, a 19-year-old former Rutgers student, is charged with crimes including bias intimidation.

His lawyer, Steven Altman, wants prosecutors to hand over information including a hand-written note from Tyler Clementi and files from his computer. Altman says it could show Clementi's state of mind and be helpful to Ravi's defense.

But prosecutors say the material isn't relevant.

Judge Glenn Berman has said he would review the information in his chambers. He may rule at a hearing scheduled for Thursday.

Comments

[SirCoolBreeze]

10:58 AM on 10/18/2011

Ravi need a good long stay in Rahway.
He can learn all about prison rape first hand and write a thesis paper on it.
That seems like his future right now.

[fem56]

08:53 PM on 10/17/2011

He is so so young. He was only a freshman just starting college. We can't look at Ravi the same way we would look at a 25 year old. He needs some sort of punishment-perhaps probation and a zillion hours of community service but a prison term would hurt more than it would help I think. He seriously invaded his Tyler's privacy and lied but did not cause Tyler's suicide. Ravi should have asked to change roommates but freshmen boys want to be seen as cool even though they are often feel scared and awkward inside.

[SirCoolBreeze]

11:00 AM on 10/18/2011

Ravi is an adult and needs to get adult punishment.
What he did was an adult crime.
Let's see how tough he is inside Rahway.

[ajbiggs]

03:16 PM on 10/17/2011

We place blame for this on everyone & everything except society......'the real' monster in the room. Sad!

[Jeremy Fortner]

02:12 PM on 10/17/2011

"Harry's Law", a popular TV series, had an episode in which their client, a suicide-causing cyber bully, was portrayed as sympathetic and got off scott free. In real life, Molly Wei is already free from prosecution. Dharun Ravi doesn't really have anything to worry about.

[news360]

10:56 AM on 10/17/2011

There's quite a bit of evidence that Clementi mocked Ravi's Indian heritage, making inferences about Ravi's family based on derogatory stereotypes. Two kids got to each other in an escalating show of aggression. Neither was innocent of mistreating the other.

I think the bigger driver of what might have pushed this kid is that fact that his mother disowned him for being gay. If he'd had her support, he might have been able to handle the fairly common, but still unfortunate situation of really hating his roommate. Crappy situations happen to a lot of freshmen, and they somehow get through it. Clementi's not the first gay person to go to college and be outed cruelly. Something else, whether its depression, family stress, or a pre-disposition, might have made this kid vulnerable.

Perhaps he wasn't aware of counseling services that were available at Rutgers - several friends of mine worked on a suicide prevention hotline there where they would talk to kids who were really pushed to the limit. It might have saved him.

[bozoboi]

01:34 PM on 10/17/2011

this "blame the dead gay person" defense is getting insane...ravi filmed and broadcast clementi...no matter how many people watched it. he needs to suffer the consequences

[Kali03]

02:10 PM on 10/17/2011

Yep.

I wonder if these Ravi apologists have daughters. Would they be so forgiving if their daughters' intimacies were streamed live on the web by a room-mate?

One thing is to not get along, quite another is to bring the argument to the level of cyber violation.

F&F, Bozoboi.

[splenetic]

02:19 PM on 10/17/2011

Are you Nancy Grace or someone else on HLN? It was wrong that his privacy was invaded, but why would it have caused him to commit suicide? Was he doing something so very awful and shameful? If he was so overwhelmed with shame, was that Ravi's fault or society's fault? I think that it was society's fault. His suicide was indeed a tragedy,but Ravi is not the direct blame, although his juvenile cruelty should weigh heavily on his conscience for a lifetime. There is no need for overzealous legal prosecution, though. There is too much overzealous prosecution in this country. Someone has to pay no matter how convoluted the logic.

[ok3apples]

02:10 PM on 10/17/2011

wow. where is this coming from? it has all the earmarks of make up something to get the guy off the hook. I don't believe a word of it.

[Waldimore]

10:39 AM on 10/17/2011

I wonder if this young man has finally absorbed the weight of his actions? I wonder if other young people are looking at this as an object lesson? When this case happened, the focus was on the fact that the victim was gay and was harrassed for that which caused him to commit suicide. But for me, I thought this was also a case of young people crossing the boundaries of privacy. I'm heterosexual and if were a young student I certainly wouldn't want someone to put my initmate moment online. It's just not funny. Privacy is sacred and sadly too many don't recognize this anymore. For his roommate to even think that this was remotely funny defies my understanding about what people now think is a joke. Maybe Tyler was harrassed for being gay. But they really stretched the bounds of invasion of privacy and the result was very costly. I cannot feel sorry for this young man. He ruined his own life.

[news360]

11:03 AM on 10/17/2011

Watch American Pie - broadcasting a failed sexual encounter is the central joke in the film. No one was up in arms over this film - so there is precedent for seeing this as a form of humor. Growing up with these tools must make being a teenager very difficult today.

[bozoboi]

01:38 PM on 10/17/2011

american pie is a movie...a really dumb movie and hardly a blueprint for life. have you had sex with a pie?

[synergie]

01:25 PM on 10/17/2011

If you're actually wondering, there is some information here, that might help you out.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/08/dharun-ravi-and-tyler-cle_n_954585.html

This wasn't a bullying case, this wasn't about homophobia, it was freshman roommate idiocy and a very troubled young man who needed help.

[Kali03]

09:19 AM on 10/17/2011

This is the first picture I've seen of this kid when he's not smirking. It looks like the toll of the trial is getting to him.

I hate to be vindictive and I try to be generous and forgiving but... it's a little tough for me to feel forgiving of this particular guy. I'm glad to see that he finally seems to be aware of the consequences of his egregious behavior against his roommate.

[synergie]

01:26 PM on 10/17/2011

You don't need to forgive him, but perhaps you could condemn him for what he actually did and not the various snippets of photography you've happened to see?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/08/dharun-ravi-and-tyler-cle_n_954585.html

It would seem he was well aware of the consequences, and not quite as evil as everyone would wish to believe.

[Kali03]

02:04 PM on 10/17/2011

I do condemn him for what he did and not for the photographs; the photographs that I have seen (aside from this one) seem to confirm what I've read.

I've had students like this young man--rules are for everyone but him, and if he's kidding it's ok (forgetting the proverb "the boys throw stones at the frogs in jest, but the frogs die in earnest") and so forth. I don't much like it and I have little sympathy for it.

Trust me, my condemnation of this kid has little basis in his photographs and much in his deeds.

[Jeremy Fortner]

02:19 PM on 10/17/2011

The spin is on. Victim baaaaaaaad. Accused just misunderstood. No crime, no punishment.