Verdict in Rutgers webcam case may hinge on defendant's intent

Six days of testimony in the Rutgers University webcam invasion-of-privacy case have made it clear that Dharun Ravi spied on his college roommate in a sexual encounter with another man.

Witnesses and evidence introduced at the trial, which resumes Monday, also indicate that Ravi wrote snide and sarcastic comments in e-mails and text messages and on Twitter about what he saw.

But when a Middlesex County Superior Court jury finally begins deliberations, it will have to weigh Ravi's intent, as well as his actions.

For Ravi, 20, to be convicted of the most serious charges he faces - bias intimidation, a hate crime - the jury must decide that he set out to harass and belittle Tyler Clementi, whom he met Aug. 28, 2010, when they began their freshman year as randomly paired roommates.

The testimony of several witnesses called by the prosecution has appeared to support defense arguments that Ravi was neither homophobic nor concerned about Clementi's sexual orientation, which would seem to undermine a bias-intimidation charge.

But that, some observers say, may be too simplistic.

"The question is whether Mr. Ravi would have engaged in the same bullying voyeurism were his roommate making out with someone of the opposite sex," said Steven Goldstein, chairman and chief executive officer of Garden State Equality, a gay-rights advocacy group.

"It's a two-part equation," added William J. Matthews, president of the Rutgers University Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian & Transgender Alumni Association. "It's not only Ravi's intent, but how the actions were received by Tyler. Unfortunately, we'll never know."

Clementi, 18, committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 22, 2010, days after learning he was observed via a live iChat Web stream. While his death is not linked to the charges Ravi faces, it has made the case a rallying point for gay-rights advocates.

"The defense has tried to present this as a tragic incident, but not one that rises to the level of criminal behavior," said Matthews, a 1981 Rutgers graduate.

"That's the legal issue, but on a moral and ethical level . . . I think Ravi needs to understand that his behavior has consequences," he said.

Whether other issues may have led to Clementi's suicide - the quiet 18-year-old from Bergen County e-mailed a friend that his mother had "rejected" him since he recently had told her he was gay - is a question that hangs over the trial.

But what drove Clementi to the bridge has no bearing on the charges Ravi faces.

How the jury views his relationship with Clementi, however, could be crucial to the trial's outcome.

According to testimony and accounts in court documents, the two had little in common.

Ravi, who accompanied his parents to this country from India, grew up in Plainsboro, Middlesex County. He has been described as outgoing, full of bravado, self-centered to the point of being obnoxious, an Ultimate Frisbee player, and a technological wizard who loved to build computer programs.

Clementi, of Ridgewood, was introverted, a talented violinist with few close friends who told his parents that he was gay just weeks before he left for college.

Ravi is charged with spying on Clementi's sexual encounter in their dorm room Sept. 19, 2010, and trying to spy on him and the same man again two days later.

He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of the two bias-intimidation counts that are part of the 15-count indictment handed up against him. Other charges include invasion of privacy and hindering prosecution.

Testimony from former and current Rutgers students, text messages, e-mails, and tweets have provided the jury with a picture of the events that occurred in Room 30 of Davidson Hall on the Piscataway campus and the gossip that quickly spread through the dorm and on the Internet.

By all accounts, no more than six students, including Ravi, viewed Clementi kissing a man identified only as "M.B."

On Friday, M.B. - whose identity has been kept private because Ravi allegedly also violated his privacy - told jurors that he met Clementi in the dorm room a third time, on a night before the Web streaming.

On Sept. 19, M.B. said, he noticed Ravi's webcam in the room and saw it faced Clementi's bed. Though he said there was no light indicating it was on, "just being in a compromising position and seeing a camera lens - it just stuck out to me," M.B. said.

As he left the dorm that night, he said, he saw about five students looking at him.

The images were streamed via Ravi's laptop, which had been positioned to capture Clementi and his guest, Ravi has said, because he was worried that his possessions might be stolen by M.B., who appeared not to be a student. But Ravi's later actions, according to testimony, suggest a different motive.

He sent texts and Twitter messages excitedly announcing what he had seen Sept. 19.

Perhaps more damaging to his defense, he allegedly tried to set up a Web stream a second time on Sept. 21 after Clementi again asked to have their dorm room to himself. One witness testified that he helped Ravi perfect the angle of his laptop camera so that it captured Clementi's bed.

A Twitter post entered as evidence supports the prosecution's contention that Ravi invited friends to a "viewing party."

"Anyone with iChat, I dare you to videochat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12," he told his Twitter followers. "Yes, it's happening again."

But was that message an attempt to intimidate and belittle Clementi because of his sexual orientation, as the prosecution has contended?

Or was it an example of Ravi's immature egocentrism, as the defense has implied?

In the world of iChat and Twitter, Ravi went by the name "TheDharun," according to testimony. The handle, with its implication that there could be no other, reflected his self-centered nature, according to some who knew him.

Most said his actions were not homophobic, but rather part of the gossipy social-networking world he, and many others, inhabited.

Molly Wei, one of the prosecution's key witnesses, testified that Ravi came to her room across the hall from his on the night of Sept. 19 and that they briefly viewed the Web stream of Clementi and M.B. kissing.

They looked for only seconds, she said, and were "shocked and surprise" by what they saw. They agreed not to mention it to anyone, she said.

Within minutes, however, they were discussing the incident via e-mail and texts with Wei's boyfriend, who attended college in New York. Later that night, Wei and four women from the dorm tapped into the iChat stream again.

Again, Wei said, they looked for only seconds.

Wei, who has been charged with two counts of invasion of privacy, could have those charges dropped as part of a pretrial intervention program that requires her testimony and participation in 300 hours of community service and counseling.

She and Ravi dropped out of Rutgers in October 2010, after they were arrested.

Wei, who attended the same high school as Ravi, testified that she never heard Ravi make disparaging remarks about Clementi or his sexual orientation.

"I didn't get a sense that he didn't like Tyler," she said, "just that they were different. . . . Dharun didn't care that Tyler was gay." Others said much the same thing.

Police misstated the incident in arrest reports, indicating that Clementi's encounter with M.B. had been "recorded" and "broadcast" on the Internet, Wei said.

The reports helped fuel a national debate about gay bashing and cyberbullying that remains a backdrop for the trial.

"It's become a big deal," said Matthews, of the Rutgers gay alumni group. "People are looking to this situation for some answers."

They want to believe that "we can fix this. . . . We can make it better," he said.

The reality, Matthews said, is that "you can't repair what happened. . . . You can only learn and move on."

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