A Boston Criminal Defense Attorney Asks If Rutgers College Student's Bullying Case Was A Hate Crime
Well, Bullying has hit the news again and, once again, this Boston criminal lawyer was asked to comment. On Friday, I was interviewed for Newsweek Magazine on the subject of the indictments handed down against Dharun Ravi (hereinafter, the “Defendant”). If you like, you can read the resulting article here.
As you may recall, Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi (hereinafter, the “Deceased”) committed suicide approximately seven months ago. Said suicide followed the Defendant, with the help of some friends, allegedly streaming live video footage of the Deceased, his roommate, engaging in romance with his lover, another man. The Defendant was allegedly aided in the broadcast by his lady-friend, Molly Wei (hereinafter, the “Accomplice”). During the broadcast, the Defendant allegedly described what was being broadcast on Twitter.
Criminal investigators have also apparently found that the Defendant had tweeted on earlier occasions his frustration and/or maliciousness about the Deceased’s homosexuality. As a result, New Jersey prosecutors say that the Defendant knowingly targeted the Deceased because he was gay.
Apparently, this was not bad enough. During the government’s investigation, it is alleged that the Defendant tried to mislead law enforcement, deleted messages and attempted to convince some of his friends not to cooperate with authorities.
These efforts did not work. They seldom do. They usually only result in more charges…which they did here.
Now, the Garden State has indicted the Defendant on 15 counts, including witness and evidence tampering and bias intimidation. The matter has been elevated to a hate crime.
