Second student in Tyler Clementi suicide case to appear in court
The second student implicated in a gay US teenager’s suicide is to make her first court appearance today.
Molly Wei, 19, was charged with invasion of privacy after allegedly watching a secret recording of Tyler Clementi having sex with another man.
Another student, Dharun Ravi, 19, has already been indicted by a grand jury on 15 charges, including bias intimidation, invasion of privacy, witness tampering and tampering with evidence.
The trio were students at Rutgers University in New Jersey when last September’s tragedy happened.
Mr Clementi, who had not told anyone he was gay, killed himself by jumping from the George Washington Bridge after he discovered he had been filmed.
Prosecutors say that Mr Ravi and Ms Wei watched Mr Clementi’s sex session through a webcam in the room he shared with Mr Ravi. Both deny the charges.
Ms Wei, who left the university after Mr Clementi’s death, has not been indicted.
She will appear at a court in Brunswick and has applied to a pre-trial intervention programme which may allow her to avoid jail time and a criminal record.
Mr Ravi is accused of filming his roommate with the intention of intimidating him because of his sexual orientation.
He is also accused of trying to cover up what he had done by deleting tweets and asking a witness not to give evidence against him.
Speaking in April, the Clementi family said: “If these facts are true, as they appear to be, then it is important for our criminal justice system to establish clear accountability under law. We are eager to have the process move forward for justice in this case and to reinforce the standards of acceptable conduct in our society.”
Mr Clementi’s death led to a national conversation about homophobic bullying and LGBT teen suicides.
