Roommate of gay suicide student pleads not guilty to intimidation
The roommate of a New Jersey student who committed suicide has pleaded not guilty to a number of charges.
Tyler Clementi, 18, jumped to his death after allegedly discovering that his roommate Dharun Ravi had secretly recorded him having sex with another man and showed the footage to classmates
The Rutgers student had not told anyone he was gay. His death last September sparked a national conversation about homophobic bullying and LGBT teen suicides.
Mr Ravi, of Plainsboro, has been indicted on 15 charges, including bias intimidation, invasion of privacy, witness tampering and tampering with evidence.
Yesterday, he pleaded not guilty to all.
Bias intimidation is the most serious of the charges. If convicted, he could face up to ten years in prison.
Prosecutors say that Mr Ravi filmed Mr Clementi with the intention of intimidating him because of his sexual orientation and streamed the footage.
They claim he then tried to cover up what he had done by deleting tweets and asking a witness not to give evidence against him.
It is alleged that online messages posted by Mr Ravi suggested he was not happy about having a gay roommate.
Another student who allegedly viewed the footage, Molly Wei, 19, of West Windsor, is expected to testify against Mr Ravi.
