In 2010, Dharun Ravi and Tyler Clementi both graduated high school and were set to attend Rutgers University that fall. At the beginning of August, Ravi received his roommate assignment and was assigned to Tyler Clementi. Ravi and a friend from high school searched on social media for more information on Clementi. The information that Ravi found and felt was the most important was that Clementi was gay. The two young men moved into their dorm room on August 28, 2010.

On September 19, 2010, Clementi asked Ravi if he would stay away from their dorm room. Ravi did agree, but went back to the room anyway and saw a middle-aged man in the room with Clementi and then left to go to a friend’s dorm room down the hall. Ravi asked his friend, Molly Wei, if he could use her computer to video chat his own computer in his dorm room; Ravi had set up his computer to automatically accept incoming calls. When Ravi called his computer, he and Wei saw that Clementi and the man were standing by the door fully clothed and kissing. Wei states that the video call was only open for a few seconds before the call was ended, Wei and Ravi had initially decided not to tell anyone because it was an awkward situation, and they knew that they should not have seen it. Moments after Ravi and Wei saw Clementi, Ravi tweeted “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.” (Ian Parker, 2012). When Wei’s roommate returned to their dorm room, Ravi showed her the video feed. Ravi assured Wei and her roommate that he did not have a problem with Clementi being gay.

On September 21, 2010, Clementi asked Ravi for the room again and Ravi agreed. At roughly 5:30 that night, Ravi tweeted “Anyone with iChat I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes, it’s happening again. A friend of Ravi’s tried to video chat the computer, but got an error message and was not able to see anything. Ravi told his friends that the feed messed up and would not work.

At 4:00 a.m. on September 22, Clementi requested a room change, stating that his roommate used a webcam to spy on him and requested a single room. A resident assistant spoke with Ravi about violating Clementi’s privacy and to inform him that someone from senior management would be getting in contact with Ravi about the situation. After talking with the resident assistant, Ravi deleted the tweets from September 19 and 21 pertaining to Clementi and then tweeted “Roommate asked for room again. It’s happening again. People with iChat, don’t you dare video chat me from 9:30 to 12” and then another tweet that stated “Everyone ignore that last tweet. Stupid drafts” (State v. Ravi, 2016). Ravi then texted Clementi explaining that he did not know that he, Clementi, had wanted the room in private and that he had only wanted to show Wei the setup for his computer, but when they saw Clementi and the older man they closed the video chat immediately. Ravi also told Clementi that it did not bother him that he was gay.

A few moments after Clementi received the texts from Ravi, he posted on his Facebook page “I’m going to jump off the GW Bridge. Sorry.” (State v. Ravi, 2016). At 9:30 that night, a Rutgers police officer was dispatched to Clementi and Ravi’s dorm room for a wellness check on Clementi, the officer only found Ravi in the room. Ravi told the officer that the last time he had spoken to Clementi was at about 4:30 p.m. when Clementi had come back from class to drop off his backpack and then Clementi left without saying anything to Ravi.

At approximately 1:00 a.m. the administrators at Rutgers University received word that Clementi had committed suicide. Ravi was told to go home for the time being. The police interviewed Wei, she told them everything that happened the first night, that they had watched Clementi and the older man. When the investigators interviewed Ravi, he told them that he was concerned about his possessions and wanted to ensure that Clementi and the other man were not touching or taking his things and that is why they decided to video chat his computer.

Ravi was offered multiple plea deals; Ravi declined the plea deals as he was afraid that he would be deported and took the risk that the jury would believe that the whole situation was a prank that went wrong. Ravi was convicted of multiple counts of bias intimidation, invasion of privacy, hindering prosecution, and tampering with evidence. He was sentenced to thirty days in prison. Wei agreed to take a plea bargain to testify against Ravi and to complete community service

Parker, I. (2012, January 30). The Story of a Suicide. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/02/06/the-story-of-a-suicide

State v. Ravi 447 N.J.Super. 261. (2016)

State v. Ravi 447 N.J.Super. 261. (2016) https://njcourts.gov/attorneys/assets/opinions/summaries/appellate/squibs15-16.pdf