Former
Rutgers student Dharun Ravi
faces jail for spying on gay roommate
By
LEONARD GREENE
Last
Updated:
10:12 AM, March 17, 2012
Posted:
1:28 AM, March 17, 2012
He
should have taken the plea deal.
Ex-Rutgers
student Dharun Ravi yesterday was slapped with a guilty verdict that
could land him years in prison — and lead to his deportation —
after using a Web cam to spy on a gay roommate who later committed
suicide.
The
20-year-old’s sensational conviction — on all 15 counts — in a
New Brunswick, NJ, court came after he had turned up his nose at a
sweetheart deal that would have kept him out of prison, requiring him
only to perform community service and undergo counseling.
In the
dramatic verdict that capped three weeks of riveting testimony and
three days of deliberations, Ravi was found guilty on charges that,
in 2010, he illegally spied on and bullied an angry and humiliated
Tyler Clementi, who jumped to his death days later from the George
Washington Bridge.
Three of
the raps — including bias and invasion of privacy — each carry a
sentence of five to 10 years in prison. Experts have said Ravi will
likely get about 10 years.
The
Indian-born Ravi also could be deported after his sentencing May 21.
Although he has lived in the United States since he was a boy, he is
not a citizen.
As the
verdict was read, Ravi lowered his head and shook it slowly back and
forth. His lawyer, Steven Altman, rubbed his back.
Free on
bail while his lawyers consider an appeal, he left court with his
father’s arm around his shoulder.
Meanwhile,
Clementi’s mother, Jane, wept in the front row in court after the
first guilty count was read. Clementi’s father, Joe, later urged
students to be more mature and responsible.
“You’re
going to meet a lot of people in your life,” an emotional Joe
Clementi said afterward. “Some of these people you may not like.
Just because you don’t like them doesn’t mean you have to work
against them.”
Although
Ravi was never legally implicated in Clementi’s death, his spying
on his roommate’s gay rendezvous was inexorably linked to the
suicide.
Prosecutors
said the verdict sent a powerful message that there is a price to be
paid for bullying and intolerance. The case had attracted worldwide
attention because of the technology used in the bullying tactics.
“[The
jurors] felt the pain of Tyler,” said Middlesex County Prosecutor
Bruce Kaplan. “They obviously understood what [Tyler] must have
went through and what he felt.”
Juror
Kashad Leverett, 20, a Middlesex County College student, said the
evidence — which included Twitter posts and text messages of Ravi
inviting his friends to tune in to the Web cam he trained on his
roommate’s bed — was very strong.
“He
was a young, immature kid, but at the same time, what he did was
wrong, and the state proved its case,” Leverett told The Post after
the verdict.
He said
that the jury was not in conflict and that it could have reached a
unanimous verdict within a few hours of getting the case but decided
to take more time.
Prosecutors
said Ravi remotely accessed his Web cam from a friend’s room on
Sept. 19, 2010, and saw Clementi kissing a man.
After
spreading the word through talk, Twitter and texts, Ravi took to the
Internet to invite friends to tune in for a repeat performance two
days later when Clementi asked him for the room again.
Clementi
apparently got wind of the plan and pulled the plug. Two days later,
he killed himself.
“You
really can’t know what someone’s thinking. You actually have to
get inside their head and it’s very difficult to do that,” juror
Bruno Ferreira told the Newark Star-Ledger. “I think just
afterwards you think about it not being done once but being done
twice, another day, then that’s why we came to that conclusion.”
Scott
Kochman, an Internet safety expert, said the trial and verdict will
raise awareness about the power of the Internet.
“Most
people have no idea that their webcam can be turned on remotely
without their knowledge or permission,” said Kochman, the president
of WebcamSafe, which makes software to block a webcam’s spying
ability.
Michael
Wildes, an immigration attorney and former federal prosecutor, said
it is likely that Ravi’s immigration status will be reviewed.
“If
he receives jail time, immigration authorities have a little more
time to prepare,” Wildes said. “But if not, they’ll get the
papers ready to serve him in May.”
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