Nineteen-year-old Dharun Ravi faces 15 charges for allegedly broadcasting his gay roommate Tyler Clementi’s sexual encounter via webcam—the broadcast may have driven Clementi to commit suicide shortly afterwards. But Ravi’s defense team has come up with a not-so-clever defense: they say the entire case should be dropped because Ravi only set up his webcam to make sure that Clementi’s man-guest didn’t steal anything. Mmhmm… pull the other one Ravi.
From The New York Times:
But defense lawyer Steven Altman said in a brief filed Wednesday that his client was not spying on Clementi. Altman said Ravi initially turned on his webcam from a friend’s computer to see what was going on in the dorm room because he was concerned about whether the man Clementi had over might steal Ravi’s iPad. He stopped watching “two seconds” after seeing the men kissing, Altman said.
Spying on your roommate… that’s not weird.
Keep in mind that an iPad weighs all of 1.35 pounds and can be carried easily. So Ravi bothered taking time to set up a webcam instead of just taking the damned iPad with him? Kinda far-fetched. And did Ravi always set up the webcam whenever he went out of the room just to make sure his roommate’s gay pals didn’t steal his other crap? Doubtful.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
But there’s more:
Altman provided text messages that he said Ravi sent Clementi on Sept. 22 — about the time the 18-year-old violinist from Ridgewood was on the suspension bridge crossing the Hudson River.
“I turned on my camera and saw you in the corner of the screen and I immediately closed it. I felt uncomfortable and guilty of what happened,” the message said. “Obviously I told people what occurred so they could give me advice. Then Tuesday when you requested the room again I wanted to make sure what happened Sunday wouldn’t happen again … I turned my camera away and put my computer to sleep so even if anyone tried it wouldn’t work. I wanted to make amends for Sunday night. I’m sorry if you heard something distorted and disturbing but I assure you all my actions were good natured.”
Another said, in part: “I’ve known you were gay and I have no problem with it.”
Hmmm. Ravi’s defense team is also claiming that the prosecution have not substantiated that Ravi has any anti-gay animus, that he viewed, copied, or distributed any sexual images via webcam, or that he deleted incriminating tweets to hide evidence from investigators.
We don’t have any way to know if any of the defense’s claims against the prosecution hold any water, nor if these alleged text messages from Ravi to Clementi actually exist. But Ravi’s new excuse sounds an awful lot like a hail Mary defense strategy. They needed another story to explain why Ravi would spy on his gay roommate and this one is the best they could come up with.
Henry
Why did he suspect Clementi’s friend? Does he think gay people steal more than straight people? I don’t want to jump to conclusions and call Ravi a liar. He might just be an imbecile.
ewe
There is another guy ALIVE that is also the victim of Ravi. I hope he testifies against him. The attorney is grasping for anything to stick. It is absolute bullshit. Unfortunately i do think Clementi had fundamentalist parents. Maybe Ravis attorney should attempt to blame them for the death of their son instead of his client. It’s not a half bad idea.
Joe
If the text’s are real they make sense..Ravi already knew at this point that Clementi went to the R.A. and I’m sure was just trying to cover himself..
and he did try to do it a second time which makes no sense if he was afraid of theft..as far as not having a problem with Tyler being gay..Tyler put it best in his post about the incident.. “and so I felt like it was look at what a f** my roomate is” and also “as much as I would love to pour PINK paint over all his stuff that would just let him win”. He says “pink” cause he knows Ravi did it because he was gay.
Throw the book at him.
unreligious
@ewe: Actually they are trying to blame the suicide in part over the fact that Clementi had just come out to his parents according to other news sources. Their defense seems to be leave no stone unturned.
soakman
May I just ask… was he relying on his friends to report a theft in progress or what? Why would you make a security measure publicly available for everyone to casually watch.
No reason. Unless, like I said, he was expecting someone else to warn him if anyone took anything. Which is a little presumptuous to begin with.
Geoboy
So I guess u r allowed to commit a crime if u send an apology text after?
ewe
@unreligious: then incarcerate the parents along with Ravi. I would be ok with that. Of course i am joking because opinion no matter how vile is different than taking a webcam of you without your knowledge having sex and broadcasting it for all to see. Ravi is guilty of the charges.
ewe
@Geoboy: or worse… according to Ravis attorney if any gay person takes a photo of the George Washington Bridge then they are contemplating suicide. So much for the tourism industry.
Teamminaj
As per earlier reports: “She said (Molly Wei), ‘Dharun came in to my room and turned on my computer to web chatting. We watched for two minutes, said Sean Yan, 18, a longtime friend.
Which is it 2 seconds or 2 minutes? Get your stories straight losers
Alan
@Joe:
Excellent post. Spot on. Clementi saw that it was anti-gay animus and he memorialized that perception in writing.
It is pretty easy to see that Ravi, who enjoys being the comic and the clown, saw an opportunity to score cheap and easy laughs for his buddies by webcasting the gay sex freak show. And it wouldn’t even be homophobic in his mind b/c he is cool and liberal and was just out for a good laugh.
Also, we should all keep in mind that Ravi is not being charged with a homicide or anything related to the suicide. This is simply about his violation of Clementi’s privacy which was intentional, repeated, and apparently, motivated by anti-gay animus.
Cam
Gee, RAvi sends a text lying about what happened AFTER he knows that Clementi complained to the school.
Funny how an earlier text of “Watch the little F***** get F****D” doesn’t seem to match with that.
TMikel
If this were true – which is patently is not – then why did he not just take his student valuables with him? Also, was there not at least the attempt to broadcast the encounter on line? I hope Ravi goes to prison for many years where having his things stolen will be the least of his worries!
Bryan
The defence’s claims has so much holes in it that the prosecution are probably laughing their asses off.
Jim
It is such a shame what happened to that poor kid. It sounded like he had quite the future ahead of him. He was a musical instrument major, right?
Hephaestion
Dharun is apparently an arrogant schmuck who has learned NOTHING since committing his crime. He clearly will continue to think he is above the law if he gets off easy here. What an arrogant, hideous asshole. Where is his remorse for the death of his roommate??? There seems to be none.
Shannon1981
@Hephaestion: Exactly. He has learned absolutely nothing. And he is still a raging homophobe. The only thing he has learned is that being a douchebag has consequences, often bigger than he could have ever imagined.
Alan
I just had a chance to read through several hundred pages of appendices accompanying Ravi’s motion. It is really fascinating. There is a lot going on in this case that speaks to how the Millennial generation deals with gays. Ravi clearly was obsessed with Clementi’s gayness. He found out TC was gay by running a deep internet search on him in the summer b4 they moved into the dorms. He had at least one ichat about it with a friend that was laced w/homophobic comments. At the same time, he didn’t try to change roomates and at one point says that even if TC were to get the hots for him, it wouldn’t be awkward. He would just deal with it as he would a woman who had an unrequited crush on him. Also, he has stated that one of his closest friends is gay and that they have a very open relationship w/ no issues over sexuality.
I think that Ravi is an “Saturday Night Live”-type homophobe, i.e., a homophobe who doesn’t think he is a homophobe b/c he sees himself as liberal and hip. He doesn’t go on about “faggots” and “queers” and would probably vote for gay marriage and gay rights. But at the same time, he views it as a bit of a joke, something bizarre and certainly not equal to heterosexuality. And because he is cool and liberal and doesn’t use slurs, he thinks that it is perfectly fine to score laughs at the expense of the 2 dudes doing it in his dorm room.
I think the invasion of privacy is a slam dunk. The evidence tampering is also a slam dunk. The hate crimes element will be a challenge because of the unusual strain of homophobia that Ravi presents.
(BTW, I did not see in the appendices, and have never heard of, a Ravi text message that says “Come see the faggot get f*cked.” Cam, if you have a link, pls post it.)
Mark
He would probably be better off saying he did it because he’s an alcoholic at least that would sound plausibly retarded
BlogShag
Oh my God. Grow a set. People have been through much worse and don’t kill themselves because of it
B
No. 12 · TMikel : “Also, was there not at least the attempt to broadcast the encounter on line? ”
It’s not clear if there was an attempt: Ravi apparently posted something about tuning in, but whether that implied that he would show a video merely post statements about what he saw is not clear. If he merely posted statements, can you convict him on those grounds? If so, it would lead to the rather bizarre situation where you go to jail if you described what you saw on a web cam but don’t if you made the same thing up. The DA is going to have to show a copy of an actual video to convince a jury: saying you are going to post a video but then not doing it due to sanity prevailing is not a crime, or at least not the same crime.
Re No. 19 · BlogShag wrote, “Oh my God. Grow a set. People have been through much worse and don’t kill themselves because of it”
You don’t know what actually happened. There seems to be evidence that Ravi did a lot of Internet searching about his roommate. Conceivably Ravi found something really embarrassing and threatened to use it (at this point we don’t know and may never know unless Ravi confesses to something that might get him in a lot more trouble than he is already in).
riese
@Alan: where did you access the documents?
MattGMD
Silly Ravi. Changing his underwear in the closet. Typical of a less than photogenic and insecure straight guy to talk about his fear of being admired by the new gay roommate.
ewe
@Alan: interesting. There may not be a text of ravi saying come and see him get fucked but there is a witness Molly Wei who was verbally told by him to come and see the faggot get fucked. Also i never hear anything about the man that was with Tyler Clementi. Will he be called? I certainly hope so. If not then i suspect he is not out and the police and prosecutors are actually protecting him from being outed which in the long run is dicrimination against all gay people. It paint the same picture you do of Ravi which is they think they are liberal in their thinking. Would a straight partner ever have to deal with this type of handling?
ewe
@MattGMD: true and just one more example of the psychological make up of Ravi which has NOTHING to do with Tyler Clementi and his feelings about himself.
ewe
@MattGMD: sounds like the beginning of a gay panic defense. what’s next? Ravi needed the video proof in order to validate his anxiety?
TMikel
It would appear that Ravi is a classic example of the new narcissist personality – it is all about HIM. Is is possible, and I just throw this out for thought, that Ravi is a closeted individual? Some of the greatest homophobes are closeted men who cannot face their own sexuality. Also, BLOGSHAG – interesting name, implies you enjoy on line sex – neither you nor anyone else can know what this even did to that poor man or what he was suffering. Your suggestion the people, “grow a pair,” is calloused, unfeeling, lacks empathy, and is just plain mean spirited and inhumane. This might be why you prefer you sex via the Internet.
BenJosh
@Hephaestion: Very well put. I agree with you wholeheartedly.
o
It’s unwashed because she died an hour after she was born.
o
@Shannon1981: I don’t think he’s learned that. Look at his face in the court photo… Nothing ever goes through his brain.
M.N.
@Alan: Where are you getting all this from? Is Ravi even liberal? Oh, I see. You’re a conservative homophobe and you can’t stand liberals. Projection is the most primitive defense mechanism, you know that?
Jack E. Jett
fry the evil fuckwad
MJ27
@BlogShag: Yeah, poor guy should be as tough as you. And of course it is always just one single thing, not the culmination of your mother rejecting you for who you are, and your roommate insinuating he is going to broadcast this video he secretly took of you to the whole universe. Sure, most of us could weather that, with swagger. And, of course, an enviable pair of which we might surreptitiously insinuate from behind a screen name. uh huh.
Alan
@Ewe:
The sexual partner is not named in the filing but his identity is surely known to the authorities. He is described as being 25 or 26 years old. Ravi continually tells the cops how “shady” the guy looked. However, at that point, Ravi, who is extremely clever, was probably trying to put the cops on to this guy as a suspect so he was probably going out of his way to make the guy sound dangerous. There is no indication of whether he would be called as a witness. However, his being out or in would not be a factor.
@TMikel:
There are definitely narcissistic qualities to Ravi. FYI, one of his online names was Theawesomedharun. Prior to meeting Clementi, he texted a friend that he assumed that Clementi would be into him and said he would treat it like he would with a girl who was into him but whom he didn’t find attractive. Weeks later, after they had moved in, Clementi texted a friend about his new roomie and in the course of the conversation made clear that he was not attracted to Ravi.
@MN: Hey idiot, read my comment. I actually took the time to read through 4 appendices accompanying Dharun Ravi’s motion to dismiss certain of the charges. Those appendices contain a variety of documents, including emails and text messages from the time he first learned that he would be rooming with Clementi up until his arrest. It also contains statements from Ravi’s friends, from Wei, and emails and texts from Clementi about his interaction with Ravi. Based on all of that, I conclude that we are not dealing with the same kind of homophobia that essentially murdered Asher Brown and Seth Walsh. He had no prior homophobic history, never used an anti-gay slur, and supposedly has a best friend who is gay. He also made no effort to avoid rooming with Clementi. It is still homophobia, but since it is manifesting in a highly intelligent adult who operates in liberal academic environment, it is qualitatively different from the homophobia you see in the typical bullycide case. BTW, not that it impacts the truth or falsity of my conclusion one iota, but for the record I am not a conservative.
I finished reading the last appendix and based on that, I had a couple of final impressions:
– I think Molly Wei got off lightly. Although she apparently didn’t know about the second attempt to webcast Clementi, she was an active part of the first privacy invasion. In fact, when Ravi went to take a shower, 2 girls came over and she turned on the cam for their amusement. (I still did not see anyone claiming that she said “come see the fag get f*cked” but her turning the cam on for these other girls is what got her arrested.)
– Although I stand by my conclusion that Ravi was a kind of “SNL homophobe,” it appears that he would go into the dorm closet every time he had to change clothes, which is pretty offensive. That is more like old school homophobia. It is clear that both Wei and Ravi thought that gay sex was shocking and worthy of a lot of their attention and a lot of gossip, and they couldn’t wait to start telling all of their friends in the dorm. If this is reflective of the Millennial generation, then that is very sad, b/c IMO we won’t really be equals until being gay becomes as uninteresting as being Irish or Episcopalian or Canadian.
– It turns out that, there was very little webcasting. The first time, Ravi turned it on for few seconds. Then, as noted above, a short time later Wei turned it on a second time for a few seconds. The total number of people who saw anything was 5 and no one saw anything other than the two making out, shirtless but still wearing pants. The claim that Clementi was broadcast over the internet having intercourse is false. Ravi’s second attempt a few days later, failed. What really humiliated Clementi was not the webcasting itself, but the attitude of all these straight students in his dorm that the whole thing was gross-out entertainment. Also, Ravi – his own roommate – stole from him the right to come out at his own time and in his own way.
– The big mystery is why Clementi killed himself. In all of these documents, there is no indication that he was contemplating suicide, let alone that he was on the verge of doing it. His RA gave him an immediate option of leaving his dorm room, and he didn’t take it. He had people to talk to. Yet on that last day, he goes to dinner in the campus dining hall, and then drives out to GW Bridge.
–
Henry
@Alan: Clementi’s death isn’t a “mystery” at all, but it makes sense to me that someone who has no understanding of circumstantial evidence might say that, and that a person like that might also claim Ravi is a “highly intelligent” person. Ravi has an average intelligence.
B
No. 23 · ewe wrote, “@Alan: interesting. There may not be a text of ravi saying come and see him get fucked but there is a witness Molly Wei who was verbally told by him to come and see the faggot get fucked.”
There’s a question, however, of whether a jury would believe Molly Wei – you can bet that Ravi’s lawyer is going to attack her credibility by grilling her on whether she made a deal with the D.A. to save her own skin and suggesting that she’s embellishing the account to please the D.A..
That’s going to be a tough one for the jury unless there is additional evidence (chat logs, emails, etc.) that address the particular areas where she might testify, which we won’t know until the trial as it’s the D.A.’s decision as to what to ask her or whether to call her as a witness at all.
No. 34 · Henry wrote, “@Alan: Clementi’s death isn’t a “mystery” at all, but it makes sense to me that someone who has no understanding of circumstantial evidence might say that, …” Actually, some aspects are a “mystery”. While we know that the deceased jumped off a bridge, we don’t know exactly why given the possibility of Ravi threatening him in some way based on all the Internet searching Ravi seemed to have done on his roommate: if the suicide was triggered by a private conversation between the two, the only person who would know is Ravi, and he’s not going to talk about it (at least, if he follows the advice a lawyer is likely to give).
ewe
@Alan: Clementis trick being out or closeted is definitely a factor because such things influence juries.
ewe
@B:Molly Wei doesn’t really have to embellish anything. All she need do is tell the truth of how Ravi orchestrated the invasion of privacy for the sake of making his own peep show for all to see which then pushed Clementi into such an emotional state that he killed himself. Ravi did that. Molly Wei witnessed it and all she needs to say is she stood by and let Ravi carry it out.
ewe
@Alan: You must know what i mean Alan. Have you ever been with people who have preconceived ideas about gay people and then they meet you. I know for me if i am a strong personality that portrays the fact i like myself as much if not more than heterosexuals people tend to learn or at least back off. So it does make a difference if Clementis trick is someone who is going to be verbal about being FUCKING OUTRAGED THAT HE WAS VIDEOTAPED. He can actually speak for Clementi as an equal being or a shameful putz.
pc
if you don’t want your ipad stolen, you take it with you.
B
No. 37 · ewe wrote, “@B:Molly Wei doesn’t really have to embellish anything. All she need do is tell the truth of how Ravi orchestrated the invasion of privacy for the sake of making his own peep show for all to see which then pushed Clementi into such an emotional state that he killed himself. Ravi did that. Molly Wei witnessed it and all she needs to say is she stood by and let Ravi carry it out.”
Ewe’s comment missed the point – there will be a defense lawyer doing his best to discredit what Molly Wei says. I was describing the tactics he could use, one of which is to convince the jury that Molly Wei’s account is embellished (regardless of whether it actually is embellished or not). How successful he will be is not known, and is of course dependent on his skill level. If Molly Wei gives a very accurate account of exactly what happened, it is still in the defense’s interests to suggest that she is exaggerating due to an agreement with the prosecutor.
Al
Does anyone know who is defence is? The article refers to defence “team”. Wouldn’t be suprised if his legal team being bank rolled by some Christian group?
Cam
@BlogShag: said…
“Oh my God. Grow a set. People have been through much worse and don’t kill themselves because of it”
___________________
Irrelevent, this case is about invasion of privacy.
ewe
@B: Girl please, i did not miss your point. Your point is a given. The defense is going to tear about Tyler Clementi himself. It is obvious they will do the same thing to Molly Wei. So fucking what. The criminal defendant is Ravi.
B
No. 43 · ewe wrote, “@B: Girl please, i did not miss your point. Your point is a given.”
It may be a given, but you missed it. Here’s the history of the discussion:
In No 23, you wrote, “There may not be a text of ravi saying come and see him get fucked but there is a witness Molly Wei who was verbally told by him to come and see the faggot get fucked.”
I then pointed out that the defense would counter any such statement by suggesting that Molly Wei’s account is “embellished” to put her in the good graces of the D.A. You replied by saying that she didn’t have to embellish anything, which missed the point – your first statement suggested there was no independent source for such testimony, but the witness is one directly involved in the events, not a person who randomly saw something, and plausibly has a self interest in pinning as much of the blame on Ravi as possible.
Alan
@ Ewe:
I know what you mean. However, the judge won’t allow this guy to testify unless he has something relevant to say about the charges, i.e., invasion of privacy w/ hate crime enhancement. He has very little to say that would be relevant for a jury’s consideration. The defense might want to call him to say that his very brief interaction w/ Ravi did not show any homophobia on Ravi’s part. The defense also might see an advantage to calling a 25 yo guy to sort of make Clementi look sleazy and to subtly suggest that the tryst look like it was an event unworthy of respect. There was more than a hint of this tactic in the motion papers.
Also, Clementi was alerted to the taping by the cam’s green light going on and then quickly turning red when Ravi shut it off. Clementi said in texts that while he thought his privacy was invaded, someone could assume that his seeing the light go on and off meant that he somehow consented to being webcast. If the defense tries to play that card, the prosecution might want to call Clementi’s partner to rebut it.
@B/Ewe:
I don’t think Wei will be able to embellish anything. She gave a very detailed interview to the police, which was recorded, and her story is out there. As I mentioned, I think Wei got off way too lightly. She admitted to turning on the cam for the entertainment of 2 of her girlfriends and she further admitted to “freaking out” over the fact that Clementi was having a tryst with a guy. Fuck her. She should go to prison for a while. I don’t see why she deserves to get community service followed by an expunged record when she won’t bring much to the prosecution anyway.