Rutgers freshman suicide after roommate broadcast gay sexual encounter online?

[jAZ]

Wow. Prank gone waaay wrong.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/201...gers_post.html

Rutgers freshman is presumed dead in suicide after roommate broadcast gay sexual encounter online

Wednesday, September 29, 2010, 5:42 PM
Kelly Heyboer/ The Star-Ledger



PISCATAWAY — A Rutgers University freshman appears to have killed himself by jumping off the George Washington Bridge after his roommate broadcast live images of the 18-year-old having a sexual encounter with another man on the internet, according to campus and law enforcement sources.

Tyler Clementi, 18, of Ridgewood, is presumed dead after his car, cell phone and computer were found near the George Washington Bridge last week, law enforcement sources said. His wallet was found on the walkway adjacent to the New York-bound lanes. In a statement released this afternoon, Clementi’s family confirmed the suicide and said his body has not been found.

Dharun Ravi, 18, of Plainsboro, and Molly Wei, 18, of Princeton, were charged with two counts each of invasion of privacy for setting up a camera in a dorm room on Sept. 19 and using it to view and transmit a live sex scene, said Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan.

Paul Mainardi of Woodbury, the Clementi family's attorney, said Ravi and Clementi were roommates at Rutgers.

Ravi's Twitter feed on that date referred to seeing his roommate have sex with another man in their room on the Piscataway campus, classmates said.

"Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into molly's room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay," Ravi said on his Twitter page in a Sept. 19 entry posted at 6:17 p.m.

Two days later, Ravi posted another entry directing his nearly 150 Twitter followers to iChat, an internet messaging service with a live video feed.

"Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes it's happening again," Ravi wrote in the Sept. 21 post.

Ravi's Twitter feed has since been taken down. But the entries survived in a cached version of the page still available through Google's search engine this afternoon.

Prosecutors said Ravi and Wei set up a camera on Sept. 19 and broadcast live images of Clementi having a "sexual encounter." Ravi is also accused of trying unsuccessfully to broadcast a second sex scene Sept. 21.

The Clementi family released a statement this afternoon. "Tyler was a fine young man, and a distinguished musician. The family is heartbroken beyond words. They respectfully request that they be given time to grieve their great loss and that their privacy at this painful time be respected by all," it said.

"The family and their representatives are cooperating fully with the ongoing criminal investigations of two Rutgers University students," the statement said.

Clementi was an accomplished violinist who had received a college scholarship from the Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra for his musicianship and leadership.
The violinist left a lasting impression with some in the Bergen County town, said Hiro Kagei, 17, who played in the orchestra with the teenager. A solo Clementi played in a concert last year "blew the audience away," he said.

"Now that he’ dead, it’s sad to think we won’t hear something like that anymore," Kagei said.

On the Rutgers campus, classmates described Clementi as quiet. At a mandatory dorm meeting called the day he was reported missing, only three students said they had spoken to Clementi since they moved into the dorm last month, according to students who were at the meeting.

Ravi and Wei — who were classmates at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North before enrolling at Rutgers this fall — did not respond to e-mail requests to comment Tuesday. Steve Altman, Ravi’s attorney, also declined to comment.

Ravi surrendered to Rutgers police Tuesday and was released on $25,000 bail, the prosecutor’s office said. Wei surrendered to the campus police Monday and was released on her own recognizance.

Under New Jersey’s invasion-of-privacy laws, it is a fourth degree crime to collect or view images depicting nudity or sexual contact involving another individual without that person’s consent, the prosecutor said. It is a third degree crime to transmit or distribute the images.

If the students are convicted on a third degree offense they could face up to five years in prison each under state law. Conviction on a fourth-degree crime could lead to probation or up to 18 months in prison.

[Titty Meat]

Says alot about society but the kid is still a dumbass.

[BIG_DADDY]

Sounds like a prank out of American Pie or something. I guess the whole gay thing is a game changer.

[BIG_DADDY]

So is this ravi clown banging wei cause they would have some freaky looking offspring.

[BigOlChiefsfan]

Ravi...during your 5 years in jail I'll bet your new room mate will have a lot of sex with a dude. Like those caballeros like to say, they're here, they're queer. Get used to it.

[BIG_DADDY]

Originally Posted by BigOlChiefsfan

Ravi...during your 5 years in jail I'll bet your new room mate will have a lot of sex with a dude. Like those caballeros like to say, they're here, they're queer. Get used to it.

They will slap him with a felony and offer him county time if he complies. He still ****ed up his whole life on this stupid cruel prank. I rememer when you used to have to kill someone or rob a bank to get those felonies. They hand them out like chiclets now.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY

They will slap him with a felony and offer him county time if he complies. He still ****ed up his whole life on this stupid cruel prank. I rememer when you used to have to kill someone or rob a bank to get those felonies. They hand them out like chiclets now.

You don't believe it was justified here?

Yeah, he ****ed up his whole life, poor him.

The quiet little gay kid he was essentially bullying is dead.

**** that guy, I hope he gets a nightly raping in prison and with any luck, a nice batch of the HIV will knock him off slowly over the next 15 years. But hopefully not until he's forced to give handjobs for meal money after this nonsense makes him unemployable.

What a prick. His roommate was a gay musician - there's a stunner. For him to essentially announce it, record it and broadcast it is not a prank. He was not doing this in fun. He was doing this because he's a jackass that lacks a basic moral compass.

It was cruel to its very core and the little **** deserves anything he gets.

[BIG_DADDY]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

You don't believe it was justified here?

Yeah, he ****ed up his whole life, poor him.

The quiet little gay kid he was essentially bullying is dead.

**** that guy, I hope he gets a nightly raping in prison and with any luck, a nice batch of the HIV will knock him off slowly over the next 15 years. But hopefully not until he's forced to give handjobs for meal money after this nonsense makes him unemployable.

What a prick. His roommate was a gay musician - there's a stunner. For him to essentially announce it, record it and broadcast it is not a prank. He was not doing this in fun. He was doing this because he's a jackass that lacks a basic moral compass.

It was cruel to its very core and the little **** deserves anything he gets.

I don't do the whole sacred cow thing. Are hidden cams common place, sure. Look at any pron sight. Is that a part of college culture like under age drinking, hazing, ect. sure. Could anyone reasonably draw the conclusion that this guy would commit suicide over this, no. As far as I know out of all the college hidden cams in history this is the first time someone responded in that manner.

I am more than sure both of them were very uncomfortable having each other as roomates and this was just a very immature college way of handling it. Like I said earlier I don't think this will result in prison time but probably a felony and possibly county time. Parents better take all that money they worked so hard for and set aside for a higher education and get a good attorney. I still don't think it will save him from the felony. If he is lucky he just might be able to have ajudication witheld if they do that in that state.

[Pants]

Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY

I don't do the whole sacred cow thing. Are hidden cams common place, sure.

What the **** are you talking about?

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY

I don't do the whole sacred cow thing. Are hidden cams common place, sure. Look at any pron sight. Is that a part of college culture like under age drinking, hazing, ect. sure. Could anyone reasonably draw the conclusion that this guy would commit suicide over this, no. As far as I know out of all the college hidden cams in history this is the first time someone responded in that manner.

I am more than sure both of them were very uncomfortable having each other as roomates and this was just a very immature college way of handling it. Like I said earlier I don't think this will result in prison time but probably a felony and possibly county time. Parents better take all that money they worked so hard for and set aside for a higher education and get a good attorney. I still don't think it will save him from the felony. If he is lucky he just might be able to have ajudication witheld if they do that in that state.

Huh?

What do you mean, 'sacred cow'?

I assume you mean that we should barbecue the kid because he was picking on a gay guy. That the punishment for this should be no worse than if he was picking on a straight guy.

But look at his posts - he did it because the kid was gay. He was bullying his little homo roommate, hahahah, look how cool he is.

And everyone knows the stigma associated with being gay. This was an attack on a guy that kept to himself designed expressly to humiliate him and take advantage of that stigma.

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

You don't believe it was justified here?

Yeah, he ****ed up his whole life, poor him.

The quiet little gay kid he was essentially bullying is dead.

**** that guy, I hope he gets a nightly raping in prison and with any luck, a nice batch of the HIV will knock him off slowly over the next 15 years. But hopefully not until he's forced to give handjobs for meal money after this nonsense makes him unemployable.

What a prick. His roommate was a gay musician - there's a stunner. For him to essentially announce it, record it and broadcast it is not a prank. He was not doing this in fun. He was doing this because he's a jackass that lacks a basic moral compass.

It was cruel to its very core and the little **** deserves anything he gets.

well said

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

You don't believe it was justified here?

Yeah, he ****ed up his whole life, poor him.

The quiet little gay kid he was essentially bullying is dead.

**** that guy, I hope he gets a nightly raping in prison and with any luck, a nice batch of the HIV will knock him off slowly over the next 15 years. But hopefully not until he's forced to give handjobs for meal money after this nonsense makes him unemployable.

What a prick. His roommate was a gay musician - there's a stunner. For him to essentially announce it, record it and broadcast it is not a prank. He was not doing this in fun. He was doing this because he's a jackass that lacks a basic moral compass.

It was cruel to its very core and the little **** deserves anything he gets.

The voyeurs didn't kill the kid, the kid killed himself.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by patteeu

The voyeurs didn't kill the kid, the kid killed himself.

That's true.

And I'm not inclined to defend the suicide, it was an unreasonable reaction.

At the same time, this was the guys roommate and the kid was known to be a quiet kid. Have you ever known anyone to be that painfully shy that didn't take things like this very hard?

His roommate knew this and just didn't give a !@#$. That makes his conduct even more reprehensible.

Consider it the old 'eggshell skull' concept. When you wrong someone, you're open to the consequences of their particular proclivities, especially if you already know about them. If you know someone is unreasonably attached to their pet (I dunno, death in the family, kid turns to the dog) and you lay out a bowl of anti-freeze for it, that's a lot different than putting bleach in someone's goldfish bowl.

You take your victim as you find him and this guy at least knew his roommate was painfully shy. He also seems to have known that the gay thing could really tweak him.

He seized on this and took it as far as it can go. The victims reaction was unreasonable, but the perp's conduct was abhorrent. He deserves whatever he gets.

[Red Dawg]

Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY

They will slap him with a felony and offer him county time if he complies. He still ****ed up his whole life on this stupid cruel prank. I rememer when you used to have to kill someone or rob a bank to get those felonies. They hand them out like chiclets now.

I love chiclets.

[Rudy tossed tigger's salad]

Originally Posted by jAZ

blew the audience

NTTAWWT