The criminal case against the roommate of a gay Rutgers University student who killed himself shortly after being the target of online bullying came to a close last month.
On Oct. 27, Dharun Ravi pleaded guilty to one count of attempted invasion of privacy and was sentenced for time he already served and fines that have been paid. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors dropped all other charges he faced.
In 2010, Ravi was accused of setting up a webcam to catch his roommate, Tyler Clementi, in an embrace with another man, and encouraging others at the New Jersey college to watch. Days later, Clementi committed suicide.
Ravi was found guilty of invasion-of-privacy and hate-crimes charges and served less than one month in prison. He appealed the convictions and this fall an appellate court found in his favor, tossing the bias charges because of a change to the state law and ordering a new trial.
The plea deal was arranged to avoid a second trial.
Clementi’s was one of several high-profile suicides of LGBT youth in the fall of 2010 and sparked a national discussion on bullying. Clementi’s death prompted the New Jersey legislation to adopt the “Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights” and the introduction of the federal Tyler Clementi Higher Education Anti-Harassment Act, which was last introduced in Congress in early 2015.