Dharun Ravi, the former Rutgers University student connected with 2010 webcam case tied to the suicide of his roommate, Tyler Clementi, pleaded guilty to attempted invasion of privacy in a plea deal Thursday after his bias intimidation conviction was overturned.
Ravi, now 24 and working in information technology in New York City, will be sentenced to time served for the third-degree felony and will spend no extra time in jail, NJ Advance Media reported.
In the case, Ravi used a web cam to capture an intimate encounter between Clementi, his freshman roommate at Rutgers, and another man inside their dorm room in September 2010, NJ Advance Media reported.
Clementi, 18, jumped off the George Washington Bridge days later, wrote the website. Ravi was convicted of a bias crime but his attorney's appealed, arguing that Clementi's suicide had nothing to do with the webcam incident, NJ Advance Media said.
Ravi's posting of Clementi's images on the Internet to a group of other students and Clementi's suicide turned into a nationwide debate over cyber bullying and discrimination against gays and lesbians, Reuters reported.
Ravi was convicted on 15 counts, including several bias intimidation charges in 2012 and sentenced to 30 days in jail, three years of probation, and 300 hours of community service — which were all completed by May, 2015, NJ Advance Media noted.
Reuters reported that the New Jersey Supreme Court struck down part of the law under which Ravi was charged as unconstitutionally vague. That led a New Jersey appeals court in September to throw out Ravi's conviction.
"Reaching the plea agreement was a reasonable way to resolve the case in view of the appellate court decision, which dismissed a series of criminal bias charges that had been leveled against the defendant by a grand jury in Middlesex County," prosecutor Andrew Carey said in a statement on Thursday, according to Reuters.
Clementi's parents, Joe and Jane Clementi, said in a statement that it is up to lawmakers and society to protect people like their son, The New York Times reported.
"We have learned a lot through this process of pleas, convictions, time served and appeals," the statement said. "We learned at the trial that what happened to Tyler was a lot worse than what was initially related to us.
"We have learned that our legislators need to make constitutionally valid and clear laws. And we have learned that witnesses or bystanders need to become upstanders for those in our society like Tyler, who cannot stand up for themselves," their statement continued.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.