Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old Rutgers freshman, is believed to have committed suicide last week after two classmates secretly taped Clementi having sex with a man and then streaming it on the Internet.
WPIX reports that Dharun Ravi, Clementi’s alleged roommate, along with fellow classmate Molly Wei, used a webcam in Clementi’s dorm to record him having sex. Ravi and Wei, both 18, then broadcast the footage on iChat. Clementi jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 23.
Ravi and Wei were charged with two counts each of invasion of privacy for using a camera to view and transmit the live image of the teen having sex on Sept. 19.
Ravi was charged with two additional counts of invasion of privacy for trying to use the hidden camera to record Clementi during another sexual encounter just three days later on Sept. 21. Ravi was freed on $25,000 bail. Wei was released on her own recognizance. Both could face up to five years in prison.
Gawker posted a screen shot of Ravi’s Twitter account, in which he admits that he and Wei recorded Clementi during the sexual encounter, and then invited people to view the footage on iChat.
“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 tweeted. The account has since been deleted.
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