College freshman commits suicide after sex tape posted on internet by roommate

[trojanchick99]

Rutgers freshman is presumed dead in suicide after roommate broadcast gay sexual encounter online

PISCATAWAY — A Rutgers University freshman appears to have killed himself by jumping off the George Washington Bridge after his roommate broadcast live images of the 18-year-old having a sexual encounter with another man on the internet, according to campus and law enforcement sources.

Tyler Clementi, 18, of Ridgewood, is presumed dead after his car, cell phone and computer were found near the George Washington Bridge last week, law enforcement sources said. His wallet was found on the walkway adjacent to the New York-bound lanes. In a statement released this afternoon, Clementi’s family confirmed the suicide and said his body has not been found.

Dharun Ravi, 18, of Plainsboro, and Molly Wei, 18, of Princeton, were charged with two counts each of invasion of privacy for setting up a camera in a dorm room on Sept. 19 and using it to view and transmit a live sex scene, said Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan.

Paul Mainardi of Woodbury, the Clementi family's attorney, said Ravi and Clementi were roommates at Rutgers.

Ravi's Twitter feed on that date referred to seeing his roommate have sex with another man in their room on the Piscataway campus, classmates said.

"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," Ravi said on his Twitter page in a Sept. 19 entry posted at 6:17 p.m.

Two days later, Ravi posted another entry directing his nearly 150 Twitter followers to iChat, an internet messaging service with a live video feed.

"Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes it's happening again," Ravi wrote in the Sept. 21 post.

Ravi's Twitter feed has since been taken down. But the entries survived in a cached version of the page still available through Google's search engine this afternoon.
Yearbook photos
Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei, both Rutgers students, are charged in connection with broadcasting a sexual encounter involving Ravi's roommate Tyler Clementi.

Prosecutors said Ravi and Wei set up a camera on Sept. 19 and broadcast live images of Clementi having a "sexual encounter." Ravi is also accused of trying unsuccessfully to broadcast a second sex scene Sept. 21.

The Clementi family released a statement this afternoon. "Tyler was a fine young man, and a distinguished musician. The family is heartbroken beyond words. They respectfully request that they be given time to grieve their great loss and that their privacy at this painful time be respected by all," it said.

"The family and their representatives are cooperating fully with the ongoing criminal investigations of two Rutgers University students," the statement said.

Clementi was an accomplished violinist who had received a college scholarship from the Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra for his musicianship and leadership.

The violinist left a lasting impression with some in the Bergen County town, said Hiro Kagei, 17, who played in the orchestra with the teenager. A solo Clementi played in a concert last year "blew the audience away," he said.

"Now that he’ dead, it’s sad to think we won’t hear something like that anymore," Kagei said.

On the Rutgers campus, classmates described Clementi as quiet. At a mandatory dorm meeting called the day he was reported missing, only three students said they had spoken to Clementi since they moved into the dorm last month, according to students who were at the meeting.

Ravi and Wei — who were classmates at West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North before enrolling at Rutgers this fall — did not respond to e-mail requests to comment Tuesday. Steve Altman, Ravi’s attorney, also declined to comment.

Ravi surrendered to Rutgers police Tuesday and was released on $25,000 bail, the prosecutor’s office said. Wei surrendered to the campus police Monday and was released on her own recognizance.

Under New Jersey’s invasion-of-privacy laws, it is a fourth degree crime to collect or view images depicting nudity or sexual contact involving another individual without that person’s consent, the prosecutor said. It is a third degree crime to transmit or distribute the images.

If the students are convicted on a third degree offense they could face up to five years in prison each under state law. Conviction on a fourth-degree crime could lead to probation or up to 18 months in prison.

Reading this made me ill. What kind of person thinks that this is funny? I hope they can charge them with more than what they have.

[Moonlit_Angel]

Sounds like this Ravi kid needs to desperately find something else to do with his time. Good god-not everything needs to be open game for the internet. Especially pathetic given that he and his friend had no consent from Tyler himself. I should think that fact will close up this case pretty darn quick. Idiots, the both of them, here's hoping they get the proper punishment they deserve for their stupidity.

As for this Tyler kid, how tragic . My condolances to his family and friends-as difficult as it would be to find his body, it would help with the closure and allow them to give him a proper burial and such.

Angela

[deep]

it is an absolute fact
the social network will fuck you over every time

[Pearl]

Originally Posted by deep

it is an absolute fact
the social network will fuck you over every time

Anyone who abuses social networking will get fucked over. You just have to smart about what you expose to the world.

As for the kid who committed suicide, I feel really sorry for him. How humiliating to have someone hurt you like that in front of the whole world.

[deep]

The social network is an absolute net negative.

[AliEnvy]

^ Old fart.

Being watched all the time will make people behave.

In this case though, stealing someone's privacy should end in the maximum sentence.

Don't be evil.

[financeguy]

Originally Posted by deep

The social network is an absolute net negative.

Subjectively, I'm inclined to agree, but can it be proven?

[Canadiens1131]

You know, humiliation in social circles is nothing new, and although I feel horrible for the kid's family, at the same time I have no sympathy for someone who kills himself, no matter how bad it is.

The thing that really grabs me about this story, though, is how Dharun is dumb enough to be posting stuff like that on Twitter, a social networking/informative service with absolutely NO preconception of privacy. This is beyond posting it on Facebook between a large group of friends. Completely baffling, even if he didn't know the extent his actions would affect the kid who offed himself.

Even the fact that, I, as a Facebook user, could probably look up the offenders' profiles and send them personal attack mail directly is just as scary.

Shit is fucked up. If I had any say in how childrens' education worked, EVERY kid should be receiving an Internet Safety and Ethics course at the same age they are receiving primary school sex ed. You have kids barely age 10 posting incredibly personal information online because that's the world they are growing up in.

I'm never having fucking kids.

[deep]

Originally Posted by AliEnvy

^ Old fart.

Being watched all the time will make people behave.

In this case though, stealing someone's privacy should end in the maximum sentence.

Don't be evil.

guilty
but I am immature in so many ways, too.

seriously, I read everyday where people get fired for something they FBed or tweated, Also, we had a case locally where some guy friended his neighbor,
came over one night and murdered the guy, then got the guy's phone and tweeted his girlfriend over, raped and murdered her, dismembered the bodies and scattered them around a park. Then he went to his bachelor party and planned to get married the next day. Cops got him at his party.

[Canadiens1131]

Originally Posted by deep

Also, we had a case locally where some guy friended his neighbor,
came over one night and murdered the guy, then got the guy's phone and tweeted his girlfriend over, raped and murdered her, dismembered the bodies and scattered them around a park. Then he went to his bachelor party and planned to get married the next day. Cops got him at his party.

That is equal parts absolutely horrible and an excellent treatment for a slasher flick tuned for the modern audience.

[AliEnvy]

Originally Posted by Canadiens1131

EVERY kid should be receiving an Internet Safety and Ethics course at the same age they are receiving primary school sex ed.

And like sex ed, parents shouldn't wait for the lame ass education system to catch up.

[A stor]

Good lord, what ever happened to respecting one's privacy?

How can you be someone's friend or room mate and do this to them?

Maybe, my generation was much more tolerate of Gay and Lesbian folks. I couldn't imagine doing this to anyone. Let alone a friend.

[Jive Turkey]

Originally Posted by A stor

Maybe, my generation was much more tolerate of Gay and Lesbian folks.

Unless you own a time machine, that's probably a bit of a stretch

I'd say this generation is more tolerant of homosexuality than any (modern) generation and that's awesome. But there will always been the ignorant pricks, no matter what the generation

[nathan1977]

Originally Posted by A stor

Good lord, what ever happened to respecting one's privacy?

How can you be someone's friend or room mate and do this to them?

This.

What did this guy honestly think would happen? Or did he really just not give a rip? (From his Twitter posts, I'm guessing not.)

[Jive Turkey]

You sometimes get placed with a roommate. Since school has been in for less than a month, there's a good chance they hardly knew each other.

[A stor]

Originally Posted by Jive Turkey

Unless you own a time machine, that's probably a bit of a stretch

I'd say this generation is more tolerant of homosexuality than any (modern) generation and that's awesome. But there will always been the ignorant pricks, no matter what the generation

No, I don't and you are probably right. Even in this age of technology, I still wouldn't have done it. Envading one's privacy is bad enough, but exposing it on the web. Is excusable.

[MrsSpringsteen]

Makes me absolutely ill too-complete lack of caring for the feelings and rights of another human being. All of these social networks are just a new avenue for it. I have no interest in any of it and stories like this just reaffirm that. I think it detaches and dehumanizes, and brings out those types of qualities in people who would have them regardless-in a way it emboldens them.

Don't know how they're going to live with that for the rest of their lives

[BVS]

Bullying isn't just for high school and college anymore:

Assistant attorney general blogs against gay student body president - CNN

For nearly six months, Andrew Shirvell, an assistant attorney general for the state of Michigan, has waged an internet campaign against college student Chris Armstrong, the openly gay student assembly president at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Among other things, Shirvell has published blog posts that accuse Armstrong of going back on a campaign promise he made to minority students; engaging in "flagrant sexual promiscuity" with another male member of the student government; sexually seducing and influencing "a previously conservative [male] student" so much so that the student, according to Shirvell, "morphed into a proponent of the radical homosexual agenda;" hosting a gay orgy in his dorm room in October 2009; and trying to recruit incoming first year students "to join the homosexual 'lifestyle.' "

[joerags]

This story really, really bothers me.
I am just stunned about this. My heart goes out to this boy's family.
Suicide is the most heartbreaking thing, especially for a boy as young as 18.
This boy did nothing wrong, and now his life is over, because of two fucking assholes who should be put away for a long time, if not forevever.

I'm sorry for sounding upset, but this really bothers me. I feel so sad that he had to kill himself because of two immature people who have no sense of morals or decency. The two assholes wanted to get their kicks, and now a boy is dead, because he was probably ashamed. My God, I am just so livid about this. I wish I could have been there to help that boy and convince him that taking your own life, simply because you were embarrassed, is not the answer.

This is one of the most upsetting stories I have ever heard in my life. And sadly, this is not the first time young people have killed themselves because of bullying.

[Irvine511]

Originally Posted by Canadiens1131

You know, humiliation in social circles is nothing new, and although I feel horrible for the kid's family, at the same time I have no sympathy for someone who kills himself, no matter how bad it is.

considering gay kids are 4x more likely to commit suicide than straight kids, and 9 out of 10 gay kids report being harassed, you don't think a modicum of sympathy is in order here?

homophobia continues to kill.