Lawyer: Rutgers webcam spy suspect just a boy, not a bigot; prosecutor called acts ‘malicious’

[Little Tich]

Source: Washington Post / AP

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — The trial of a former Rutgers University student accused of using a webcam to spy on his roommate’s intimate liaison with another man opened Friday with questions about whether the defendant had a problem with gay people.

A prosecutor told jurors that Dharun Ravi, now 19, spied on roommate Tyler Clementi and acted maliciously “to deprive him of his dignity.” Clementi, in an act that sparked a national conversation about bullying of young gays, committed suicide days after the alleged spying in September 2010.

Ravi’s lawyer insisted his client isn’t bigoted. “He may be stupid at times,” defense attorney Steven Altman said in his opening statement. “He’s an 18-year-old boy, but he’s certainly not a criminal.”

Early witnesses testified that Ravi expressed discomfort about having a gay roommate, but they didn’t know him to have a problem with gay people generally.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/opening-arguments-expected-in-trial-of-nj-student-accused-of-using-webcam-to-spy-on-roommate/2012/02/24/gIQA5ucAXR_story.html

[JI7]

1. how would he liked to be secretly taped having sex and put out for others to see

[lukkadairish]

2. Just let us set the record that

His 18 year old choice directly caused another 18 year old to make a choice. That choice was to jump from a bridge in despair. Choices have consequences. The second choice mentioned has no recourse. The first choice does have recourse and that should be penance for having a clear hand in the death of another

[saras]

3. If he's "just a kid" he has no right to be in college, or to have a webcam

And under no circumstances does he ever have a right to put a hidden camera in someone else's home - even if it's also his own home. With EVERYTHING else removed from the situation, that's a really creepy crime, and deserves criminal charges all by itself.

[SemperEadem]

4. so he shouldn't face consequences for his actions, is that it?

he's not a child who knows no better.

He is a young man who made a choice to humiliate his roommate by secretly taping him and exposing him for no other reason but his perverted amusement.

If it wasn't for this Ravi dude, Clementi would probably still be alive. It was the direct result of Ravi's actions that drove Clementi to kill himself.

Actions have consequences and he is old enough to face his consequences. We all must. When one undertakes a vicious enterprise designed to cause anguish and pain to another, they must face the consequences of those actions.

[stockholmer]

5. wonder if Altman would call Ravi 'an 18 year-old boy, but no criminal' if Ravi had raped his mother?

Fucking so sick of the rationalisations, especially when the victim is LGBT.

[closeupready]

6. This story just makes me sad for everyone involved.

Strangely, Tyler's parents seem more forgiving than I would be, suggesting that they don't blame Ravi entirely, and don't necessarily want the book thrown at him, but just want to do the best in Tyler's memory.

To date, though, it's not clear to me that Ravi is sorry. If he could honestly just say that publicly, then I guess deferring to Tyler's parents assessment would suffice, at least for me. In the absence of that, I'm not sure what to think.

Like a lot of young adults just making their way in the world, he made a mistake, a big one. This mistake just happened to be one with a horrible outcome.

[Fearless]

7. If it were murder of a straight man he would be "an adult"

But if it's an 18 year old straight man, he's just a boy!

[closeupready]

8. Thinking out loud: Part of what I think went wrong here - Ravi Dharun,

from the account of how events unfolded (which was reported recently in the New Yorker), and I think it's a big one, is that it doesn't appear Dharun went to ANY lengths to acquaint himself with his new roommate. In fact, his father had to prompt him to introduce himself.

So clearly, from Day One, Ravi did NOT want to socialize with Tyler, nor did he want to be on friendly terms.

Had he reached out and attempted to strike up a friendship with Tyler, and even if later events happened identically, there is a part of me that thinks maybe Tyler would have dealt with this by raising it with Dharun personally.

Years ago, I did an apprenticeship at a place, and on my first day, I was introduced to all the guys (it was an all-male enterprise), and they were all quite amiable. At one point I was focusing on something, and I went to get a glass of water, but someone had tied my uniform to a piece of equipment. LOL I thought nothing of it, frankly, but later, we all laughed, it was a practical joke on the 'rookie', and in the spirit of teamwork, I just sort of took it in good humor.

The type of 'joke' Dharun played on Tyler was altogether more serious, but even so, there is a part of me that thinks he really didn't mean for this to go so far, or that he didn't understand exactly what he was really doing.