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Rutger’s student who spied on now-dead gay roomie with Web cam could face deportation



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No sympathy here. AP via the Wash Post:

After nearly two weeks of testimony, the case that kick-started national conversations about gay youths and Internet privacy was sent Wednesday to a jury that must decide whether a former Rutgers University student is a criminal or just a young man who was confused by seeing two men kiss.
Confused by seeing two men kiss? Seriously, we're gonna play that card now?
Dharun Ravi, now 20, is accused of viewing a few seconds of his roommate’s intimate encounter with another man in their dorm room and telling people about it in text messages, tweets and in person. He could face years in prison if convicted of charges including invasion of privacy and bias intimidation, a hate crime.
Gee, wonder whose side the AP reporter is on. "A few seconds."
Lawyers gave their summations Tuesday in the case, which has gotten enormous attention since the events of September 2010, when the roommate, Tyler Clementi, jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge.

Ravi could also face deportation to India, where he was born and remains a citizen, if he’s convicted. An expert says the risk of deportation is highest if he is convicted on the most serious charges.

Last year, prosecutors offered Ravi a plea bargain that called for no prison time — and help avoiding deportation.
And he turned down the plea. Too bad. Now he gets to face justice.

Speaking of Justice, boy the Tyler Clementi Wikipedia page sure reads like someone's defense lawyer got to it. You see, the wiki page claims in its "background" section, Ravi was worried for his safety because the gay roommate had invited a creepy older man over - that's why he was spying on the gay roommate having sex, because he was concerned.  Funny that the rather biased wiki page doesn't mention Ravi's gleeful tweets about catching his roomie having sex, nor Ravi's seeming offer to anyone with iChat to watch the show two days later. Here's ABC telling us what wikipedia doesn't:
On Sept. 19, Ravi appears to tweet, "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 faces two additional counts of invasion of privacy for allegedly attempting to use the camera to view and transmit another sexual encounter involving the same student just two days later, said Kaplan.

On Sept. 21 Ravi posted, "Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes it's happening again."
So much for Ravi's "troll panic" defense.

And how is this not obstruction of justice?  And in fact they are going after him for witness tampering and hindering arrest. From another ABC article:
On Sept. 22 [Police Officer Krzysztof] Kowalczy asked Ravi if he had any idea where Clementi was or if he had been acting unusually. Ravi said he didn't know where his roommate was, but that Clementi had been acting normally earlier in the afternoon.

Ravi told Kowalczy about Clementi's Sept. 19 date with an "older, slightly overweight" male with a "scrubby beard and short black hair," the officer testified, but did not mention that Clementi was upset that Ravi has used his webcam to catch Clementi and the man kissing. Ravi also didn't mention that Clementi was angry over Ravi's tweet inviting others to watch Clementi's second date on Sept. 21, the officer testified.

The search for Clementi ended when police discovered that he had jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge.
Funny, no mention of this fact either on the wikipedia page. Hopefully someone who isn't affiliated with the defense team will take a look at that page and make it truly unbiased.

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