NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — A former Rutgers University student accused of using a webcam to spy on his homosexual roommate’s love life was convicted of invasion of privacy and anti-gay intimidation Friday.
Dharun Ravi, 20, shook his head slightly after hearing the guilty verdicts. The jury found Ravi innocent on some subparts of some of the charges, but guilty of all 15 counts as a whole.
The most serious charges against Ravi — bias intimidation based on sexual orientation, a hate crime — carry up to 10 years in prison each. Legal experts said the most Ravi would probably get all together at sentencing May 21 would be 10 years.
Prosecutors said that Ravi set up a webcam in his dorm room in September 2010 and captured his roommate, Tyler Clementi, kissing another man, then tweeted about it and excitedly tried to catch Clementi in the act again two days later. About a half-dozen students were believed to have seen the live video of the kissing.
Within days, Clementi realized he had been watched and leaped from the George Washington Bridge after posting one last status update on Facebook: “Jumping off the gw bridge, sorry.”
Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
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