Dharun Ravi

Opening statements are set for Friday in the trial of former Rutgers University freshman Dharun Ravi, who is charged with using a laptop webcam to secretly view his college roommate in a sexual encounter with another man. Jury selection in the high-profile case was completed Thursday in Middlesex County Superior Court in New Brunswick. The trial is expected to last up to four weeks. Ravi's roommate, Tyler Clementi, 18, committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge on Sept.

By Lalita Clozel   This week, former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi was sentenced to 30 days in jail for using a webcam to spy on an intimate encounter between his roommate, Tyler Clementi, and another man shortly before Clementi committed suicide. Prosecutors, gay-rights advocates, and others have argued that the sentence is lenient given the charges. In fact, it's fairly harsh.   The Clementi case appears to fit a victim-vs.-bully narrative: A young, gay introvert is rudely exposed by his roommate and then jumps off a bridge.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - A Rutgers University police officer told jurors Thursday that he knocked on the door of a dorm room shortly before 10 p.m. Sept. 22, 2010, for a well-being check on one of the residents, Tyler Clementi. The other freshman who lived in the cramped room answered, the officer testified, and said that when he had last seen Clementi five hours earlier, everything was normal. The jury will likely hear otherwise in coming days in the trial of Dharun Ravi, who is accused of using a webcam to spy on Clementi's intimate encounter with a man. Ravi faces 15 criminal counts, including invasion of privacy and bias intimidation, a hate crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - Prosecutors rested their case Thursday in the trial of a former Rutgers University student, setting the stage for lawyers to begin their defense of the young man accused of using a webcam to spy on his roommate's intimate encounter with another man. Dharun Ravi's lawyers are expected to present an investigator and several character witnesses starting Friday. His roommate, Tyler Clementi, committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge on Sept.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - A Rutgers University student gave some of the most damaging testimony yet Wednesday in a former classmate's trial for allegedly using a webcam to spy on his roommate's intimate encounter with another man. Lokesh Ojha described helping the defendant, Dharun Ravi, adjust his webcam so he could get a clear view of his roommate's bed. Authorities say that by then, Ravi had already spied on roommate Tyler Clementi once and...

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - A key prosecution witness in the trial of a former Rutgers University student accused of watching his roommate's intimate encounter via webcam testified Monday that she agreed to keep it a secret because it was shocking to see the images - but that it wasn't under wraps for long. "First of all, it was shocking. It felt wrong. We didn't expect to see that. . . . It was like we shouldn't have seen it," Molly Wei told jurors. "We didn't want people to know what had happened.

Dharun Ravi arrives at the Middlesex County Sheriff's Department in New Brunswick, N.J., to be fingerprinted and photographed before being driven to the county jail Thursday to serve a 30-day term. The former Rutgers student was convicted in the webcam spying case involving his gay roommate, who later committed suicide.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - The pool of potential jurors for the trial of a former Rutgers University student accused of using a webcam to spy on his roommate's intimate encounter with another man was whittled down to 85 Tuesday. Twelve jurors plus alternates will sit in the case of Dharun Ravi, who is charged with bias intimidation, invasion of privacy, and other crimes against his roommate, Tyler Clementi, who leaped to his death off the George Washington Bridge just days after the encounter.

Jury selection has begun in the trial of former Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi, who is accused of using a webcam to spy on his roommate's intimate encounter with another man. The case gained widespread attention after the roommate, Tyler Clementi, committed suicide in September 2010, days after the intimate encounter. Ravi faces 15 charges, including invasion of privacy and hindering prosecution. The most serious charge is bias intimidation, a hate crime punishable by 10 years in prison.

Days after asking to have his conviction overturned, lawyers for the Rutgers University student who spied on his gay roommate kissing a man have asked that he receive probation rather than a jail term. In a 33-page motion loaded with positive personal accounts of Dharun Ravi's character and lack of bias, attorneys urged Judge Glenn Berman to depart from sentencing guidelines that require a jail term for a bias-intimidation conviction. They argued that the judge could apply a legal doctrine known as "the serious injustice standard" to impose a lighter sentence.

The parents of a Rutgers University student who killed himself after his roommate used a webcam to see him kissing another man have decided not to sue the university or anyone else involved in the case, preferring to focus on the foundation started in Ryan Clementi's name. "They're just in a spot now where they have this opportunity - because of the fact that the media has made this case so well-known - to do some very good things through the foundation," Paul Mainardi, an attorney for Joseph and Jane Clementi of Ridgewood, N.J., said Friday.

RIDGEWOOD, N.J. - The parents of Tyler Clementi say they have left their longtime church due to its views on homosexuality. Jane Clementi could no longer attend Grace Church in Ridgewood because doing so would suggest she supported its teachings against homosexuality, she has told the New York Times. She took strength from reading the Bible as she reconsidered her views on the topic, she said. Clementi's son, Tyler, killed himself by jumping off the George Washington Bridge in 2010.

Dharun Ravi, the former Rutgers University student convicted of using a webcam to spy on his gay roommate having a sexual encounter, is set to be released from the Middlesex County Jail on Tuesday, after completing 20 days of his 30-day jail term. Ravi, 20, received five days' credit for good behavior and five more for working while in jail, according to an Associated Press report. Such credits are standard for a 30-day sentence. The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office plans to appeal the jail term imposed by Superior Court Judge Glenn Berman, which it contends was too lenient.

Dharun Ravi arrives at the Middlesex County Sheriff's Department in New Brunswick, N.J., to be fingerprinted and photographed before being driven to the county jail Thursday to serve a 30-day term. The former Rutgers student was convicted in the webcam spying case involving his gay roommate, who later committed suicide.

Dharun Ravi wants to go to jail. The former Rutgers University student convicted of spying on his gay roommate in a sexual encounter with a man has asked Superior Court Judge Glenn Berman for permission to begin serving the 30-day prison sentence Berman imposed last week rather than wait for the appeals process — which could take months — to be completed. Ravi is expected to be at a hearing before Berman in Middlesex County Court tomorrow morning to formalize the request.

By Lalita Clozel   This week, former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi was sentenced to 30 days in jail for using a webcam to spy on an intimate encounter between his roommate, Tyler Clementi, and another man shortly before Clementi committed suicide. Prosecutors, gay-rights advocates, and others have argued that the sentence is lenient given the charges. In fact, it's fairly harsh.   The Clementi case appears to fit a victim-vs.-bully narrative: A young, gay introvert is rudely exposed by his roommate and then jumps off a bridge.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - An unexpectedly light 30-day jail sentence handed down Monday to Dharun Ravi, convicted in the Rutgers University webcam spying case, divided legal experts and gay activists and has the prosecution planning an appeal. Ravi, 20, of Plainsboro, N.J., was found guilty by a Middlesex County jury in March of bias intimidation, invasion of privacy, and hindering prosecution for using his laptop to secretly live-stream an intimate encounter between his Rutgers roommate, Tyler Clementi, and another man two years ago. The 18-year-old freshman committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge on Sept.

Even the 30-day prison sentence given to a former Rutgers University student who used a webcam to secretly record his roommate having a romantic encounter with another man may have been too much. Many legal experts agree that Dharun Ravi, 20, probably wouldn't have been charged with any crime had not his victim, Tyler Clementi, committed suicide two days after the September 2010 incident. Even so, there was no evidence that Ravi's despicable act directly triggered Clementi's death.

The world finally got to see Dharun Ravi cry, and if his tears didn't demonstrate the remorse he has so famously failed to express publicly, they at least looked genuine. The seemingly unflappable Ultimate Frisbee ace barely batted an eyelash Monday when others in the Middlesex County courtroom described his actions as "evil" and so lacking in humanity as to verge on monstrous. But when his mother, Sabitha Pazhani, began sobbing just a seat away, Ravi's enormous brown eyes filled up, then spilled.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Prosecutors say they will appeal the 30-day jail sentence given to Dharun Ravi today in the Rutgers University webcam spying case. Ravi, 20, of Plainsboro, N.J, was convicted in March of bias intimidation, invasion of privacy and hindering prosecution for using his laptop to secretly live-stream an intimate encounter between his Rutgers roommate, Tyler Clementi, and another man two years ago. Tyler committed suicide days after he became aware of the incident, focusing international attention on the case.