Trial opens in Rutgers webcam kiss case
jordan retro 5NEW BRUNSWICK, New Jersey (Reuters) – Prosecutors on Friday opened the trial of a former Rutgers University student who used a webcam to spy on his roommate’s homosexual tryst, saying he violated the “dignity and privacy” of his roommate who later committed suicide.
Dharun Ravi, 19, faces 15 counts of invasion of privacy, witness and evidence tampering and bias intimidation, a hate crime, in New Jersey’s Middlesex County Court.
He rejected an earlier plea deal and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted in the case that captured the attention of the public and brought up questions about bullying, teen suicide and privacy in the digital age.
Ravi’s lawyers on Friday said their client may have behaved childishly, but he did not commit any crime.
Ravi used a webcam on September 19, 2010, to watch Tyler Clementi, who was kissing another man in their dormitory room – a video that a witness testified showed little more than two indistinct figures.
Clementi, 18, jumped off the George Washington Bridge three days later. Ravi is not charged with causing Clementi’s death.
“Someone once said never take away another person’s dignity. It means everything to them and nothing to you,” prosecutor Julia McClure told the jury.
“This isn’t about Dharun Ravi having to like Tyler Clementi’s sexual orientation … but it is about having the decency to respect it and to respect Tyler’s dignity and privacy,” she said.
In his opening statement, defense attorney Steven Altman emphasized Ravi’s youth, saying: “He’s a boy, childish, at times immature. He was 18.”
Ravi and Clementi shared the dorm room, he noted in an apparent strategic effort to undermine the invasion of privacy charge by noting that Ravi was looking into his own room.
He also noted that Ravi made no recording of the incident nor did he put it online.
“That viewing lasted 2 to 5 seconds,” the defense attorney said. “Nobody saw anything.”
Four friends of Ravi’s appeared as witnesses, including Austin Chung, who testified that Ravi had not mentioned any problems with his roommate.
“He actually told me that Tyler was a nice guy,” he said.
Witness Cassandra Cicco, one of a handful of students who saw the video, said it was not considered a big deal in the dorm.
“All of us were, like, oh, that happened, and that was the end of it,” she said.
Members of the Ravi and Clementi families were in court for the first day of testimony. Ravi, dressed neatly in a dark suit and tie, watched attentively from the defense table.
Experts say it may be difficult to prove the incident was a hate crime. For such a conviction, prosecutors must prove Ravi attempted to intimidate Clementi for being gay. Both were freshmen at the time.
Another student, Molly Wei, also was originally charged in the case, accused of watching the tryst along with Ravi. She has entered a plea deal that requires her to testify against Ravi.
Testimony was scheduled to resume on Monday.
(Editing By Ellen Wulfhorst and Paul Thomasch)nike cheap shoes
Processing your request, Please wait....
