Friday, March 16, 2012

Ex-Rutgers student faces 10 years or more for anti-gay hate crime

Former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi could face more than 10 years in prison following his conviction Friday for hate crimes, invasion of privacy, tampering with evidence, and a host of other charges related to his spying on his gay college roommate, Tyler Clementi, whose subsequent suicide sparked a national debate on bullying of gay youth.

Ravi, 20, could also face deportation to his native India when he is sentenced in May.

Ravi sat silently, his face betraying little emotion, as the word "guilty" sounded throughout a New Jersey courtroom. He faced 15 counts in the case, which made national news in September 2010 after Clementi, who was 18, hurled himself from the George Washington Bridge in the New York City area after learning that Ravi had set up a webcam in their dorm room and captured him in an intimate encounter with a date.

As court adjourned, Ravi's mother cast him a long, lingering look while she filed out of the room with other spectators.
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