NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — A judge here sentenced Dharun Ravi to 30 days in jail Monday for using a webcam to spy on his Rutgers University r...
The case drew wide attention because his roommate, Tyler Clementi, jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge in September 2010, a few days after learning of the spying. A jury convicted Mr. Ravi in March of all 15 counts against him, which included invasion of privacy and bias intimidation. The relatively light sentence — he faced up to 10 years in prison — surprised many who were watching the hearing, as it came after the judge spent several minutes lambasting Mr. Ravi’s behavior.
“You lied to your roommate who placed his trust in you without any conditions, and you violated it,” said the judge, Glenn Berman of State Superior Court. “I haven’t heard you apologize once.”
Prosecutors appeared visibly angered by the sentence, and said they would appeal. Mr. Ravi’s family, meanwhile, hugged one another; just a few minutes earlier, his mother sobbed through a statement in which she implored the judge to go easy on her son.
"The media misconstrued the facts to the public and misconceptions were formed," she said, adding that she watched helplessly as her son sank into despair after he was charged, barely eating while trying to take online courses from home. "All I could do was hug him and cry."
Prosecutors appeared visibly angry by the sentence, and said they would appeal. Mr. Ravi’s family, meanwhile, hugged one another; just a few minutes earlier, his mother sobbed through a statement in which she implored the judge to go easy on her son.
“The media misconstrued the facts to the public and misconceptions were formed,” she said, adding that she watched helplessly as her son sank into despair after he was charged, barely eating while trying to take online courses from home. “All I could do was hug him and cry.”
Steven Goldstein, the chairman of Garden State Equality, a prominent New Jersey gay-rights group, was displeased. “We have opposed throwing the book at Dharun Ravi,” hesaid in a statement. “But we have similarly rejected the other extreme, that Ravi should have gotten no jail time at all, and today’s sentencing is closer to that extreme than the other. This was not merely a childhood prank gone awry. This was not a crime without bias.”Mr. Ravi — who also was sentenced to three years’ probation, 300 hours of community service, counseling about cyberbullying and alternate lifestyles and a $10,000 probation fee — was not charged with causing Mr. Clementi’s death, but the suicide hung heavily over the trial, and over Monday’s sentencing hearing. Mr. Clementi’s mother, father and brother all read statements, their voices occasionally quivering as they spoke. “I cannot imagine the level of rejection, isolation and disdain he must have felt from his peers,” Tyler’s brother, James Clementi, said. “Dharun never bothered to care about the harm he was doing to my brother’s heart and mind. My family has never heard an apology, an acknowledgment of any wrongdoing.”
His mother, Jane Clementi, also criticized students who knew about the spying from Mr. Ravi’s Twitter feeds. “How could they all go along with such meanness?” she said. “Why didn’t any one of them speak up and try to stop it?”
Mr. Ravi’s lawyers had asked Judge Berman to sentence him only to probation, arguing that it would be a “serious injustice” to imprison him because his actions had not included violence or threats.
They had attached statements of support from friends, including some who testified against Mr. Ravi to detail his spying on Mr. Clementi, in arguing that he had no bias against gay men and lesbians. Hundreds of people, many of them, like Mr. Ravi, from India, had attended rallies urging the judge not to incarcerate him.
On Monday, Steven Altman, a lawyer for Mr. Ravi, said that he was being “demonized by the gay community” upon the mistaken belief that he caused his roommate’s death, and that the belief was infused throughout the entire prosecution. “This case is contrived, is being treated and exists today as if it’s a murder case,” he said.
He also said that prison would serve no more deterrent purpose than probation and community service, and that Mr. Ravi’s age should be taken into account. “His youth and immaturity were unable to provide him with the tools necessary to appreciate the consequences of his actions,” he said.
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