Former Rutgers University Student Dharun Ravi Convicted of Invasion of Privacy & Anti-Gay Intimidation Could face 10+ Years in Prison

20 year old Dharun Ravi, a former University of Rutgers student, was found guilty on 15 countsof invasion of privacy and anti-gay intimidation. The crimes stemmed from the much publicized case where Ravi spied on his gay roommate using a webcam and recorded his love life. Ravi set up a webcam in his dorm room in September 2010 capturing his roommate Tyler Clementi kissing another man and then tweeted about it. He then made it public. After realizing that he had been videotaped, Tyler Clementi sadly committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. Clementi posted a final status on his Facebook: “Jumping off the gw bridge, sorry.”

A former Rutgers University student accused of using a webcam to spy on his gay roommate’s love life was convicted of invasion of privacy and anti-gay intimidation Friday in a case that exploded into the headlines when the victim threw himself to his death off a bridge.

Dharun Ravi, 20, shook his head slightly after hearing the guilty verdicts on all 15 counts against him.

He could get several years in prison — and could be deported to his native India, even though he has lived legally in the U.S. since he was a little boy — for an act that cast a spotlight on teen suicide and anti-gay bullying and illustrated the Internet’s.

Dharun Ravi’s defense attorney tried to convince the jury to no avail that his client was not motivated by any hostility towards gays, but instead he was just an immature kid. The jury did not buy it.

The most serious charges — bias intimidation based on sexual orientation, a hate crime — carry up to 10 years in prison each. Legal experts said the most Ravi would probably get all together at sentencing May 21 would be 10 years.

Ravi was not charged with causing Clementi’s death, and the suicide remained largely in the background at the trial, though some witnesses mentioned it and the jury was told Clementi had taken his life. Prosecutors were not allowed to argue directly that the spying led to his death; defense lawyers were barred from saying there were other reasons he killed himself.