A Rutgers student committed suicide last week after his roommate uploaded a sex tape of him making out with another male.
According to WPIX, the freshman jumped off the George Washington bridge on Thursday, Sept. 23, after his roommate uploaded the sex tape to the Internet.
Fellow freshmen students Dharun Ravi, 18, of Plainsboro and Molly Wei, 18, of Princeton have been charged with invasion of privacy for allegedly placing a camera in 18-year-old Tyler Clementi’s room.
Ravi and Wei were charged with two counts each of invasion of privacy for using a camera to view and transmit a live image of the teen during the sexual encounter on Sept. 19.
Ravi was additionally charged with two more counts of invasion of privacy for trying to use the hidden camera to view the same student during another sexual encounter just three days later on Sept. 21.
Days before the suicide, Ravi tweeted: “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 was released on $25,000 bail. He has since deleted his Twitter page. If convicted, both students face up to 5 years in prison.
According to Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan, it is a fourth-degree crime to collect or view images depicting nudity or sexual content of an individual without that person’s consent. The crime becomes a third-degree offense if the images are transmitted or distributed. [link]
“The university takes these matters seriously and has policies to deal with student behavior,” said spokeswoman Sandra Lanman. “Under federal law, the university cannot comment on specifics.” [link]
