Tyler Clementi suicide confirmed: Freshman’s roommate accused of watching, broadcasting gay private life [video]
”jumping off the GW bridge sorry”
The last Facebook post of Tyler Clementi, a violinist and Rutgers University freshman who committed suicide on September 22. His roommate, Dharun Ravi, and a classmate, Molly Wei, allegedly used a webcam to watch and broadcast the 18-year-old’s sexual encounter with another male. (New Jersey Star-Ledger)
Dharun bragged about his invasion of Clementi’s privacy on his Twitter page, then apparenly invited people to use iChat to watch or chat about it.
”so the other night i had a guy over. I had talked to my roommate that afternoon and he had said it would be fine w/him. I checked his twitter today. he tweeted that I was using the room (which is obnoxious enough), AND that he went into somebody else’s room and remotely turned on his webcam and saw me making out with a guy…. I’m kinda pissed at him (rightfully so I think, no?)… I mean aside from being an asshole from time to time, he’s a pretty decent roommate…”
”and so I feel like it was ‘look at what a fag my roommate is’ … and the fact that the people he was with saw my making out with a guy as the scandal whereas i mean come on…he was SPYING ON ME….do they see nothing wrong with this?….”
”revenge never ends well for me, as much as I would love to pour pink paint all over his stuff…..that would just let him win…..”
”I texted roomie around 7 asking for the room later tonight and he said it was fine. when I got back to the room I instantly noticed he had turned the webcam toward my bed. And he had posted online again….saying….”anyone want a free show just video chat me tonight”…or something similar to that….”
”and him doing it again just set me off….so talking to him just didn’t seem like an option…. meanwhile I turned off and unplugged his computer, went crazy looking for other hidden cams….and then had a great time.”
”[The RA] seemed to take it seriously… he asked me to email him a written paragraph about what exactly happened… I emailed it to him, and to two people above him….”
From a series of posts made on JustUSBoys.com which appear to be Clementi (as ”cit2mo”) asking for advice about his roommate spying on him dated September 21 and 22. If these posts are legitimately Clementi it shows that he was angry and somewhat distraught. The poster says that he fears the school’s rules are filled with “too many could’s” regarding recording people’s privacy, and he doesn’t want to end up with an unpunished roommate who is mad at him, or switching to someone who might be worse. (JustUsBoys.com)
”Now that two individuals have been charged with invasion of privacy, we will be making every effort to assess whether bias played a role in the incident, and, if so, we will bring appropriate charges.”
Bruce Kaplan, Prosecutor for Middlesex County, NJ where Rutgers University freshmen Tyler Clementi attended college. WSJ reports that a body found in the Hudson River is Clementi. (Wall Street Journal)
”Regardless of legal outcomes, our hope is that our family’s personal tragedy will serve as a call to compassion, empathy and human dignity.”
Statement from the parents of Jane and Joe Clementi about their son’s widely publicized suicide. (WPIX)
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