An Indian facing hate crime charges in USA.

[Peregrine]

Ravi and Clementi's paths first crossed in August 2010 when they moved into the same cramped freshmen dorm room.

The two seemed to have little in common: Ravi was an outwardly confident and popular student who enjoyed tinkering with computers and playing on the university's Ultimate Frisbee team. Clementi was a quieter young man with a talent for the violin.

Although the two roommates were initially wary of one another, according to online chats with friends that were transcribed in court papers, they appeared to get along for the first three weeks of school.

Prosecutors called roughly two dozen witnesses, none of whom said they had ever heard Ravi express discomfort about homosexuality or Clementi's sexuality in particular.

Their relationship began to fray on Sunday, September 19, 2010. Clementi was expecting a visit that evening from a man he recently met online and asked Ravi to excuse himself from the room for the evening.

The man, then 30, has been identified only as M.B. and testified for the prosecution.

Ravi agreed to Clementi's request, but witnesses recall him being flustered and alarmed at the man's age and "sketchy" appearance. He was concerned about his iPad being stolen, witnesses said, and was also curious about what was going on his room and whether his roommate was, as he suspected, gay.

Ravi went into the nearby room of his friend Molly Wei, and together they used her laptop to access his computer webcam to look into his room. Wei testified that they saw an indistinct image of the two men apparently kissing while fully dressed, and that they shut off the feed within seconds in a state of shock.

Ravi wrote about it on his Twitter page: "Saw my roommate making out with a dude. Yay."

Clementi was annoyed to read on Ravi's Twitter page that he had been seen through the webcam, and made an online housing request to change to a single room. He resolved not to let it affect his plans to have M.B. back to his room on Tuesday, September 21, and again asked Ravi to excuse himself.

Ravi agreed, and told friends in person and on his Twitter page to access his webcam to watch Clementi's date.

Ravi told investigators that he ended up disabling his video chat software before leaving for Frisbee practice that evening. Clementi also was careful to unplug Ravi's computer, and no video footage was seen that evening of M.B.'s brief visit.

The following evening Clementi updated his Facebook status to say he was jumping off the George Washington Bridge around the same time Ravi was composing a series of apologetic text messages to Clementi.

Ravi, now 20, who is not charged in Clementi's death, is charged with 15 counts of invasion of privacy, witness and evidence tampering and bias intimidation, which is a hate crime.

Rutgers student was no gay bully, lawyer says in final argument - Yahoo! News

 

[Dance]

I remember when this incident happened.

Just goes to show there are many horrible people there are in the world

 

[Aramsogo]

Ravi should have taken the plea deal like the Wei girl. Now he will go to American prison where he will be homosexually raped (very common and ironic).

 

[Peregrine]

There is an important lesson here, one must try to conceal private affairs of others as much as possible, we all have skeletons in our closets, so trying to take advantage of others situation might cause them a great deal of suffering & who knows that one day you might land in similar situation.

 

[khanz]

ok it's sad but sorry i'm gonna side with the indian here how the hell is this a hate crime ??? his roommate comitted suicide it's not like ravi bullied him or anything it's his room too he had every right to be suspicious of strangers coming into his room infact he was very nice if anything he left his own dorm so his roommate could hook up with another dude alot of people may not have been so kind or told them to go elsewhere and not in their room.What B.S scapegoating poor ravi they're gonna ruin the rest of this kid's life.

 

[Peregrine]

ok it's sad but sorry i'm gonna side with the indian here how the hell is this a hate crime ??? his roommate comitted suicide it's not like ravi bullied him or anything it's his room too he had every right to be suspicious of strangers coming into his room infact he was very nice if anything he left his own dorm so his roommate could hook up with another dude alot of people may not have been so kind or told them to go elsewhere and not in their room.What B.S scapegoating poor ravi they're gonna ruin the rest of this kid's life.

This is what he did afterwards.
Ravi wrote about it on his Twitter page: "Saw my roommate making out with a dude. Yay."

 

[Chogy]

Posting stuff like he did on Twitter - NOT cool.

Kicking your roommate out so you can make it with some dude - also NOT cool.

There is fault on both sides. But nothing IMO that he should be jailed for. If the gay guy was so hypersensitive about his situation that he'd commit suicide over that twitter comment, then he had vast and severe problems of his own.

I think the lesson learned is simple and oft repeated. If you are having issues with someone, rather than going public and exacerbating the problem, one should seek relief by proper authorities, i.e. go to the dorm people, explain the situation, say "I'm not comfortable with strangers in my room", and if they don't fix it one way or another, THEN it's time to take it to those higher up.

 

[livingdead]

Since when gay people have become so sensitive. if you are gay, be proud of it, and tell the whole world.

But hate crime a bit too much, if the dude had not died, it would have been a gay version of American Pie.

 

[Sashan]

What he did was stupid. He never understood the invasion of privacy. Now jury deliberations have started, I feel he was second time stupid in not taking the plea bargain - no jail terms and 600 hours of community service - he couldn't have got a better offer with all the damning evidence against him.

 

[Aramsogo]

Guilty of Hate Crime and Witness Tampering.
Prison then deportation back to India.

This guy had the world's dumbest lawyer. Always, always take any deal with no prison.
The Chinese girl took the deferred adjudication deal. She won't even have a criminal record in 2 years. Never, ever go to trial if you are not facing prison.

 

[longyi]

Guilty of Hate Crime and Witness Tampering.
Prison then deportation back to India.

This guy had the world's dumbest lawyer. Always, always take any deal with no prison.
The Chinese girl took the deferred adjudication deal. She won't even have a criminal record in 2 years. Never, ever go to trial if you are not facing prison.

Yes 2 mistakes for a young man's life. The first was being a stupid prankster, and the second was listening to bad advices.

 

[somebozo]

emotionalism is taking USA down the drain..if Clementi was gay..then he was gay..no point committing suicide over it..if he was ashamed he shouldnt be gay to begin with...ahh..homo are such a disease to society.

This was just some college style fun Ravi had and technically cannot be charged with anything.

 

[Cloakedvessel]

emotionalism is taking USA down the drain..if Clementi was gay..then he was gay..no point committing suicide over it..if he was ashamed he shouldnt be gay to begin with...ahh..homo are such a disease to society.

It was not his homosexuality that drove him to commit suicide but probably the sex tape Ravi put on the internet.

 

[Rig Vedic]

It was not his homosexuality that drove him to commit suicide but probably the sex tape Ravi put on the internet.

Firstly Ravi did not put any tape on the internet, and secondly, Clementi had posted his own sex pictures on gay websites. He was one messed up dude.

Ravi comes from a culture where sex without marriage is not cool. Students having sex in dorms, and that too homosexual sex, would definitely not be considered kosher.

When in Rome do as Romans do. Ravi should have been more sensitive about the political aspects of homosexuality in America.