24th
Ravi faces charges of invasion of privacy, bias intimidation and hindering apprehension. Prosecutors say he watched his roommate, Tyler Clementi, during an intimate moment with another man and wanted to expose Clementi as gay and intimidate him.
Several other people were in the room on Rutgers’ Busch campus when an incident of alleged spying occurred, including Cassandra Cicco, who lived across the hall from Ravi and Clementi. She shared a room with Molly Wei, who was also arrested in September 2010 but was admitted into a pre-trial probationary program in return for testifying against Ravi.
Cicco was in the room when Ravi, Wei and others allegedly activated a webcam in Ravi’s room from Wei’s computer across the hall, which showed them what was going on in Ravi’s room, where Clementi had a guest over.
“it came up for a split second, it was a quick video, we saw two males leaning against the bed making out,” Cicco said.
“We were all just like, ‘Oh okay, that happened,’ and that was the end of it,” Cicco said.
Clementi’s 2010 death sparked a nationwide anti-bullying movement (the “It Gets Better” movement), whose impact is felt to this day.
If you haven’t read the New Yorker’s feature on the subject, we’d recommend you get to that this weekend.
