According to the New York Times, Dharun Ravi, was sentenced to 30 days in jail for using a webcam to spy on his roommate, Tyler Clementi, while he had a sexual encounter with another man.
The case gained the nation’s attention after Clementi jumped to his death in September 2010 after hearing about the incident. It has also become a staple of cyberbullying and suicide among gay teenagers as different advocacy groups has used the case to advance their cause.
And it might have worked. In March, a jury convicted Ravi on all 15 counts against him, which included bias intimidation and invasion of privacy. Ravi was not charged with the death of Clementi, although the suicide did weigh heavily on the trial and sentencing Monday.
Ravi will only spend 30 days in jail, although he could have spent up to 10 years in prison for his crimes.
In addition to the jail sentence, Judge Glenn Berman sentenced Ravi to three years’ probation, 300 hours of community service, counseling about cyberbullying and alternate lifestyles, and a $10,000 probation fee, to be used to help victims of bias crimes, according to the article.
Ravi’s family and his lawyers said they will appeal the sentence.
Ravi and Clementi were freshman year roommates at Rutgers University. Three weeks into their first year, Clementi asked Ravi if he could use the room so he could be alone with a man he had met online. Ravi agreed, but not before he set up his webcam to spy on the two of them. He watched from a friend’s room.
Two days later, Clementi asked for the room again. Again, Ravi set up the webcam and urged his friends to watch. But by this time, Clementi had read the Twitter messages Ravi had created and had turned off the webcam.
Clementi checked Ravi’s Twitter feed 38 times and filed a request for a room change before jumping off the George Washington Bridge.
