Former Indian student pleads guilty in webcam spying case

Dharun Ravi was convicted in 2012 over bullying his roommate Tyler Clementi, who committed suicide in 2010

A 24-year-old Indian origin ex-student of Rutgers University on Friday pleaded guilty for an attempted invasion of his roommate's privacy using a web cam, bringing an end to a case that drew global attention to cyber bullying.

Dharun Ravi admitted to attempting to capture Tyler Clementi's sexual encounter with another man in a web camera with the intent of leaking it for public viewing, but withdrawing from publishing it over the internet later.

By pleading guilty to the third-degree felony, Ravi accepted a deal with state prosecutors to drop other charges after an appellate court threw out his conviction, New York Times reported.

 

Last month the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey in Newark overturned a lower court's conviction of Ravi on several counts of bias and intimidation because of a change in state law. The court called for a new trial on ten other counts that included invasion of privacy and tampering with evidence.

Prosecutors said they disagreed with the appellate court's reversal of the bias charges, but would lose if they tried to appeal the ruling.

Ravi was convicted in 2012 after the case prompted a furor over the bullying of gay teenagers like Clementi, an accomplished violinist who committed suicide by leaping from the George Washington Bridge in 2010.

Prosecutors did not charge Ravi in the death of Clementi, who left no explanation for his suicide. But shortly before his death, Clementi learned that Ravi had spied on him with a webcam.

Ravi will be sentenced to serv time for the third-degree charge and will spend no additional time in jail.

Ravi, who now works in IT in New York City, said he "feels good" and "relieved" that the case is finished. He declined to comment further.

"He just wants to disappear," Ravi's attorney, Steven Altman, said outside the courtroom.

Clementi's parents, Joe and Jane, said in a statement that witnesses of cyber bullying "need to become upstanders for those in our society like Tyler, who cannot stand up for themselves".

Calling on the youth and their parents to refrain from being "bystanders to bullying, harassment or humiliation", the statement of the bereaving parents further said, 

"Interrupt it, report it and reach out to victims to offer support. If this had happened in Tyler's case, our lives might be very different today."