The trial of former Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi has begun. Ravi faces 15 criminal charges, including bias intimidation and invasion of privacy, stemming from accusations that he used a webcam to view his roommate's intimate encounter with another man. NBC's Craig Melvin reports.
By msnbc.com staff and news services
Updated at 1:40 p.m. ET: NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - Opening statements Friday in the trial of a former Rutgers student accused of using a webcam to spy on his roommate's intimate encounter with another man focused on whether the defendant was malicious or just an 18-year-old boy acting his age.
First Assistant Middlesex County Prosecutor Julia McClure told jurors that Dharun Ravi deliberately planned to invade Tyler Clementi's privacy "and to deprive him of his dignity."
Defense attorneys countered that Ravi, 18 at the time but now 19, behaved childishly but did not commit any crime. He faces 15 counts of invasion of privacy, witness and evidence tampering and bias intimidation, a hate crime punishable by up to 10 years in state prison, in New Jersey's Middlesex County Court.
"He may be stupid at times," said Ravi's lawyer, Steven Altman. "He's an 18-year-old boy, but he's certainly not a criminal."
The case started a national conversation about how young gays are treated after Clementi committed suicide in September 2010.
"The defendant's acts were not a prank, they were not an accident and they were not a mistake," McClure?said. "They were mean-spirited, they were malicious and they were criminal."
In her half-hour opening statement, McClure did not mention?Clementi's suicide.
Ravi reportedly sent Clementi conciliatory texts
'Not anti-gay'
Altman said Ravi was not bigoted and never bullied Clementi.
"You're going to see evidence that Dharun is not homophobic, not anti-gay. Evidence that he never recorded, never broadcast images of his roommate. He never harassed his roommate, or ridiculed or spoke negatively about his roommate. He thought he was nice guy and had no problem with him," Altman said.
Altman said his client saw only seconds of images of Clementi and another man hugging.
It took four days to seat a jury of 16, including four alternates, in a case that's made national headlines.
The trial is going forward because Ravi rejected a plea bargain offer that would have let him avoid any jail time and receive the state's help if federal authorities tried to deport him to India, where he was born.
If the other man in the video is brought to the witness stand, his testimony could become a key part of the trial. He's been identified publicly only by the initials M.B.
The trial is expected to last three to four weeks.
The main alleged crime happened just weeks after Clementi, a violinist from Ridgewood, N.J., and Ravi, an Ultimate Frisbee player from Plainsboro, N.J., moved into their dorm room at Rutgers.
Clementi's parents said he told them he was gay in the days before he left for Rutgers. But court filings show that Ravi already knew that from Clementi's Web postings.
Authorities say Ravi used the webcam on his computer to check on Clementi when he'd asked to have the room to himself so he could have company.
Ravi posted a Twitter message about it: "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."
Pal takes plea deal
Initially, another first-year Rutgers student, Molly Wei, of Princeton Junction, was also charged in the case. But she entered a pre-trial intervention program last year that allows her to avoid jail time and emerge without a criminal record if she meets a list of conditions for three years. She also agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in their case against Ravi.
Two nights after the first alleged spying incident, authorities say Ravi tried to do the same thing when Clementi asked him to stay away from the room again.
A day after that, Clementi jumped from the George Washington Bridge, leaving behind a terse Facebook status updated: "Jumping off the gw bridge, sorry."
The trial is expected to delve into text messages, tweets and online chats from Clementi and Ravi.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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