UPDATED: Opening Arguments Begin in Clementi Spying Trial
Trial of Dharun Ravi expected to last about a month
Photos
Two Rutgers students who lived in the same dorm as Tyler Clementi and Dharun Ravi told jurors Friday what they saw on the evening Ravi allegedly used a camera attached to his computer to spy on his roommate's sexual encounter with another man.
Ravi, 19, from Plainsboro, faces 15 criminal counts stemming from the incident. Clementi, after learning about the spying, committed suicide by jumping from the George Washington Bridge.
According to a report on NJ.com, Cassandra Cicco told jururs she was present when Ravi and then-roomate Molly Wei spied on Clementi in their shared room via webcam.
NJ.com reports that Cicco told the court that the three saw the video briefly, with an image of two men in an intimate embrace. One of the men was Clementi, the other has only been identified in court documents as "M.B."
Ravi's attorney reportedly asked Cicco if Ravi had ever shown prejudice against gays, and Cicco said he had not, and claimed Ravi had stated that he had a good friend who was gay.
Earlier Friday, in their opening statement to the jury, prosecutor's dismissed the notion that Ravi's alleged webcam spying on his roommate was done in fun.
"It was not a prank,” Middlesex County Prosecutor Julia McClure said in his opening statement to the jury. “It was mean spirited, it was malicious and it was criminal.”
According to a report from WNYC's Nancy Solomon, Ravi's attorney, Steven Altman, said McClure's depiction of his client as a homophobe was not accurate.
Altman said that Ravi was an immature boy new to college.
Solomon is live tweeting the case from the court room as it progresses.
Judy Shepps Battle
4:57 pm on Friday, February 24, 2012
The trial of ex-Rutgers student Dharun Ravi for (among other counts) the invasion of privacy of his roommate Tyler Clementi that may (or may not) have caused Clementi to jump to his death off the George Washington Bridge has begun today. The question of whether this is a hate crime or the actions of an immature college freshman will be key. My hope is that the 16 jurors who are serving on this tri......al have an open mind about this issue.
I know that I am not convinced that Ravi's actions -- however sadistic/mean/hateful -- rise to the status of a Hate crime. As a therapist, I am also not convinced that anyone can assign a single cause to explain why an individual commits suicide. While having his privacy invaded and being made fun of might have been the actions with the most proximity to his death, Tyler Clementi's decision to suicide undoubtedly has more complex causal dimensions.
In the big picture, it isn't Ravi or those who watched the video, or Tyler Clementi's experiences before he entered Rutgers that are critical. It is the attitude and value of homophobia that pervades the fabric of our society that is on trial.
In this light, I urge folks to watch the last episode of "Glee" which dealt with the almost suicide of one of its characters who had gone from homophobic bully to recognizing and begining to come out as a gay man only to be bullied by his peers for being gay. The show really did say it all.