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Subscribe to RSSUpdated at 10:55 p.m. ET: With prosecutors appealing for a longer sentence, former Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi on Thursday arrived at a sheriff's department to begin a 30-day sentence in a case that exploded into the headlines when his roommate, Tyler Clementi, committed suicide.
Indian-born Ravi, 20, was found guilty last March of bias intimidation and invasion of privacy.
Clementi, 18, jumped off the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 22, 2010, after finding out that Ravi saw him kissing another man and appeared to encourage others to watch his romantic encounters through a camera on his computer.
Ravi appeared in a New Jersey state court Wednesday to announce his decision to report to jail. NBCNewYork.com reported that Ravi will likely get a 10-day credit for good behavior, and may serve only 20 days in jail. He was also sentenced to 300 hours of community service and $11,000 in fines.
Ravi apologized in a written statement that was presented at his sentencing, but Clementi's parents rejected his apology as a "public relations piece," according to NBCNewYork.com.
Prosecutors are appealing Ravi's sentence, which they believe is too lenient, but they said they are not requesting the 10-year maximum sentence he faced.
Ravi could have remained free during thee prosecutors' appeal. But during a hearing Wednesday, he agreed to waive his protection from double jeopardy. He is now not allowed to argue that he's already served his time if prosecutors prevail on their appeal and he receives a longer sentence.
Ravi's lawyer, Joseph Benedict, said he's still appealing the conviction altogether.
Assistant prosecutor Julia McClure told the court that she felt statutory requirements warranted a five-year jail term.
But Judge Glenn Berman stood by his 30-day sentence. "I can't find it in me to sentence this gentleman to a state prison that houses people convicted of offenses such as murder, armed robbery and rape," Berman said. "I know he's an adult, but I think the interests of justice demand I deviate from the guidelines."
In a statement issued Tuesday through a lawyer, Ravi said he would begin serving his jail term Thursday.
"It's the only way I can go on with my life," he said in the statement -- which also included his first apology in the case.
Ravi apologizes for spying on roommate
More on Ravi from NBCNewYork.com
Former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi sentenced
"I accept responsibility for and regret my thoughtless, insensitive, immature, stupid and childish choices that I made on September 19, 2010 and September 21, 2010," Ravi's statement read. "My behavior and actions, which at no time were motivated by hate, bigotry, prejudice or desire to hurt, humiliate or embarrass anyone, were nonetheless the wrong choices and decisions."
When Ravi was sentenced on May 21, Judge Berman chastised him for not apologizing for his actions.
"I heard this jury say 'guilty' 288 times," Berman said, referring to all the sub-parts of the charges Ravi faced, repeated once for each juror. "And I haven't heard you apologize once."
During the court proceeding, Ravi, who expressed remorse in March in an interview with the New Jersey Star-Ledger, chose not to address the judge, though he cried as his mother pleaded for mercy from the judge.
Because Ravi's sentence is under a year, it decreases chances that immigration authorities will try to have him deported to India, where he remains a citizen.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Can Bubba accomplish anything with Ravi in just 30 days?
That would be appropriate only if Ravi were actually going to prison. Despite what the headline states, the first sentence of the story states he reported to the sheriff ..... that would be County Jail. Nice going MSNBC.
Talk about stupid Drama queens!! Does the writer have any clue what the difference is between Prison and a short stay in County Jail? It is an enourmous difference as the county will be watching TV with no bars and like a long camp. Terrible story writing.
The stay is too light and this guy iis a smug ahole that deserves alot more..........
You don't think "Bubba" is in the county jail? I was a public defender for a long time and I've had clients raped in county jail. Seems like half the people there are waiting for prison beds to open so they can start serving their prison terms. Our prisons are bursting at the seams and often there are long waits for prison beds to open up. The worst offenders are the ones least likly to be allowed to stay out on bond until there is space in the prison system for them. You have every kind of offender in county jails and sometimes you have some real jerk jailers who will do things like stick someone who ticks them off into a room with people they know are likely to beat and/or rape them.
Once I had a tiny little 18 year old client badly beaten and raped in the jail by a big "Bubba" type. They took him to the hospital and documented signs of the beating and brutal rape. (They must have thought it was serious becuse they never spend money on people like that.) The prosecutors wouldn't file charges. They gave the guy who did it a suspended sentence on the charges keeping him in the jail because he was facing serious charges in another state and they just wanted him gone, wanted to keep the whole thing quiet. My client was effeminate and probably gay. I was arguing with the prosecutors, appalled that they wouldn't file charges with solid eye witness testimony and solid medical evidence and one of them just laughed and said my client was a little queer anyway and he probably liked it. This was a kid in on minor charges. He had a couple of broken bones, broken nose, was bleeding profusely from his anus. It was no less a rape than if he'd been a woman.
This kind of thing is not all that uncommon but your local prosecutor's office, the sheriff's department, etc., don't want it getting out because it will only bring heat down on them and they don't really care about people in their jails anyway. They look at them as subhuman.
bubba can abuse his ravi-holi.....turn it into a leather cherio
We can only hope.....
Record a civilian in a romantic encounter without his knowledge/consent, in the privacy of his own home, broadcast it on the web pushing the victim to commit suicide...eh, 1 month
Record a policeman in public, in uniform, doing his job and flagrantly violating the law, without his knowledge/consent - up to 10 years in prison and $100K in fines
Does this make sense to anyone else?
Ravi did not kill Clementi - Clementi committed suicide. I suppose Clementi was not proud of his sexual orientation, but it was just a matter of time before it came out of the closet. Ravi did something terrible by intruding on Clementi's privacy, for which Ravi was sentenced. Would it make a difference if Clementi was on the webcam kissing a female and then committed suicide? Actually, I don't see any difference in this day and age of openly gay people.
Clementi was insecure of his sexual orientation and was so distraught that he ended his life. How was Ravi to know that?
Bill Griggs (#1.3), seriously I wonder sometimes how this sort of thing can go on in the USA, where penal conditions are so inhumane and everyone knows it, from the President down to the homeless hobo. Whether a guy deserves it or not is not the issue, but this is the land of the free and the righteous, but perhaps not in prison. Keep in mind many in jail are acutally innocent, or for petty violations (yesterday in the news - an honors student gets jail time for missing classes so she can work part time to help out family). The US touts itself as the vanguard for human rights and dignity, yet they have the largest prison population among all countries in the world, and lets this go on behind prison walls. Maybe the Northen European model is a better solution?
He's probably a spoiled little prick,but not responsible for an extremely overly dramatic reaction.
But the question remains: Is this, despite his father's wealth, the sort of person that we want to become an American citizen?
I believe he should be deported back to India and never allowed back in this country.
Before he only wanted to watch a male on male..NOW he can actually participate! :)
This entire prosecution was politically motivated. This was nothing more than a stupid college prank and had it not been for a prosecutor trying to show how enlightened he was and the fact that an extremely disturbed kid committed suicide, this case never would have gone to trial. Ravi's actions did not cause Clementi to commit suicide and Ravi was never charged with any offense related to the suicide. The truth is the jury only convicted because Clementi committed suicide and they felt that someone should be punished for that. The reality is that Clementi had serious emotional problems long before he met Ravi. There were reports early on in this case that the media chose to give little coverage to and then drop indicating that Clementi's parents were not at all supportive or accepting of their son's choice in lifestyle. The parent's push for the prosecution of Ravi was to try and assuage their own guilt for their involvement in causing their son's mental problems by not accepting his lifestyle. Instead of accepting responsibility for their own actions they tried to pin all of the blame for the suicide on Ravi, which is a load of crap. What Ravi did was wrong, but there was absolutely no evidence presented that Ravi had any general dislike of gays or was in any way homophobic or anti-gay. What he did was insensitive but there was no malicious intent, it was a stupid, ill thought out prank. Ravi certainly does not deserve a prison sentence over this and the judge recognized this fact. Even the gay community in the end came out and said the same thing, that this did not warrant sending Ravi to prison. There has been little if any objection from the gay community to the sentence the judge handed down other than from a very small handful of extremely militant gay rights types. The gay community as a whole has not expressed any dissatisfaction with the sentence. This prosecutor needs to stop wasting the taxpayers money trying to show how enlightened he is and attempting to bolster his political career by pushing for a harsher sentence, it just is not warranted.
JS in SD - being gay is not a lifestyle choice. When did you choose to be straight? Or were you born that way?
@tltpi, Its is a lifestyle, you are not born that way, you are taught to love people, obviously you missed the class or didnt pay attention.
So get over your high horse of being "born that way", killers arent born that way, rapist are not born that way. being gay is just a reason to sodomize, so screw the bible its just a natural order of things.
Being gay is a mental issue, simple as that. I dont hate gays, i have a gay brother, but dont act that way around me, or ill punch you in the face! see its simple and my brother knows that.
MWhoops, glad you're not my brother. And I believe you are the one with mental issues.
Being gay isn't a lifestyle. IT'S A LIFE! I'm gay, because I AM, just as heterosexuals are heterosexual, because THEY ARE! If being one or the other is a choice, then try being gay for 1 year just to walk in our shoes to see what it's like, then switch back.
It shouldn't be a problem for you IF IT'S A CHOICE as you say it is! D ick weed!
So you are equating being gay with being a murderer and a rapist?! Just so you know being gay isn't a choice and, yes, they are born that way. And before you start throwing out accusations, no, I am not gay. But I do have gay friends.
So being straight is just a reason to copulate?
I know who is simple with mental issues. But I won't tell.
Nothing like letting your brother know how much you love him by punching him in the face.
Mister you....never mind. Why bother.
Whoops! There it is!
So, if these things were not your motivatiin for what you did, what was? Sorry you got to sit in a jail cell for a few days. But, the guy is dead, partly due to YOUR willful and hateful actions.
who gives a flip, he is responsible for the death of a human being, his apology was bull@!$%#, i hope this child of privelege gets asked everytime he applies for a job to explain how he is responsible for tyler's death....30 days is cheap for another human beings life.....
Idiot - it was his mom's rejection that resulted in him committing the suicide. Yeah that is speculation too just as you speculate that this kid is responsible. So lets give Clementi's mom also the mandatory 10yr prison term. Why not include in that sweeping generalization his brother and dad.
Lets hope he doesn't drop the soap while in lock down. Woohoo. He sure does have a pretty mouth. hahahahahaha. I think he is going to know a lot more about the Gay lifestyle once his sentence is over.
Looks like starfox already knows a lot about gay lifestyle, and how it feels to drop the soap in a company of perverts.
I also think that prison rape is absolutely hilarious and that people who joke about it are wonderful human beings.
A promising life utterly destroyed because an ef-ing idiot jumped off the bridge. I bet if he just decided to complain to Rutgers administration or authorities, the whole thing would have ended with one of them assigned a different room, and nothing else.
The very fact that homos statistically are more prone to suicide than general population proves that something is wrong with their heads.
Apparently the only shot at higher education Ravi still has is going back to India. Their universities are not in the same league as American ones, but at least they are not infested with political correctness. Or maybe a different kind of political correctness of which few, if any, know outside of India.
Or does it prove that 12-year-olds, insecure in their own sexuality, anonymously post their childish hate speech?
Considering the age of most gay suicide attempts is very young and usually associated with bullying, I would strongly suggest that nothing is "wrong with their heads", but rather that something is wrong with the heads of people like "Anonymous User."
Your handle is pretty convincing proof that you have issues around your own sexuality, kiddo!
Dharun Ravi was a very promising young man. That is, before that idiot jumped off the bridge and the sh!t hit the fan.
Or you thought otherwise? or about the other guy? WTF. Which planet are you currently residing?
It's not a surprise that you are called "Anonymous User." I'd want to remain anonymous too if I was making comments like those that you made.
This has nothing to do with what Rutgers would have done. This has everything to do with bullying. Ravi could have asked to move to a different room, too, but he didn't, because he was having too much fun bullying his roommate. Tyler Clementi did nothing wrong, but was so humiliated that he took his own life.
Say what? First off, they are homosexuals, not homos. Like me, (although probably not like you) they are human beings.
There is nothing wrong with their heads either. The problem is with people like Ravi and you for thinking that there must be something wrong that they statistically commit suicide more often. Even the strongest person in the world can only take so much bullying, criticism, and being the brunt of homophobic jokes before they become desperate.
Many in this world - like yourself - keep telling homosexuals that there is something wrong with them. There isn't. Have you looked in the mirror lately, because the reflection you see IS what's wrong. If only that mirror could show what's inside of you - you'd find out that inside, you're probably no different than Ravi.
Ravi will only serve 30 days, but because of this, he will never gain US citizenship, he will probably not get into another university, and even if he does, I can't imagine there are any businesses that would want to hire him. Personally, I think that after the 30 day sentence, he should have been put on the first plane back to India. Life must not be too good there if his family came to the USA years ago and decided to stay.
Ravi chose to act in an irresponsible, immature manner that clearly contributed to breaking an innocent person's spirit. Are you suggesting that because Clementi was gay he was not also a promising young man?
Tyler Clementi didn't turn Ravi into a bully. Promising young Ravi did that to himself, and then he chose Tyler Clementi as his victim. Chances are Tyler wasn't his first victim either. Bullies don't just bully once -for most it's a lifestyle.
Anonomous User, you know that saying Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus? Well, in your case, you're from another galaxy that's only accessible through a big, black hole!
Dharun Ravi was a very promising young man. That is, before that idiot jumped off the bridge and the sh!t hit the fan.
Promising man without a conscience. Yup - we need more of those around. Maybe he will run for public office someday.
Anonymous User - you are 100% completely and unconditionally wrong. Teen suicide is across the board throughout the world. Whatever statistics you may have checked before you made that comment are incorrect.
And speaking about being correct, political correctness had absolutely nothing to do with the convictions of Ravi. He broke the law and there are consequences for anyone who is taken to task or held accountable for their bad acts.
If someone positioned a camera in the direction of your bed and taped your sex acts with someone else and then plastered them out there for all to see, I am confident you'd feel the same embarrassment and humiliation. Invasion of privacy is invasion of privacy, and I do not care how young or how promising Ravi's life may have been. He did what he did at the expense of someone else. For that act, he is being held accountable. That's NOT political correctness, it's called justice.
Anonymous is anonymous because he has swallowed too many times.........Prison "jello" of course.
It is amazing how a person can make a deciscion to take their own life and blame someone else for it and they are not alive to testify! How can anyone really know what was in that kids mind when he jumped? Notes and text messages don't tell all, and perhaps Ravi was the fall guy?
Can you possibly be serious? Ravi was convicted of bias intimidation as well as tampering with evidence and witnesses. Are you actually saying Ravi is the victim here?
Perhaps you are an idiot. Same logic.
Actually he did, AND IT CLEARLY POINTED TO THE FAMILY - especially his MOM. So wondering whether she is going to do the 10 yr term too along with this kid.
Hope Julia can achieve that? Why is that not there in the LGBT agenda - that is a true scare tactic to force parents to ACCEPT the gay children without raising an eyebrow.
Did the smarty pants miss a trick? Or because she is white
Oh I forgot the whole punishment is for his attempt to destroy evidence - nothing to do WITH GAYS and NOTHING TO DO WITH HATRED.
Get over
Funny how homosexuals want rights just like everyone else, yet they get upset and distraught when it finally comes out that they're gay. #ONLYAmerica
Firstly, gay or straight EVERYONE deserves the same rights. Secondly, I would suggest to you that being denied the same rights is why "they" become upset and distraught.
Ravi needs to be in jail a lot longer than 30 days. I hope the prosecution's appeal gets heard and is granted.
Then DEPORT him when all is said and done.
deport the B------!
This just does not sit well with me. Invasion of privacy for any reason and especially with the results of the student killing himself because of it - it's plain wrong. He deserves more time in jail plus I hope the parents of the dead student sue him in civil court and ruin him personally and financially. Remember - this could happen to YOU for whatever reason if some moron with a cell phone happens to be around at the wrong time.
I am greatly troubled by the mentality of the people on this site and elsewhere who are making racist remarks, calling for the deportation of a young man who committed a minor offense, and coupling that in some cases with perverse jokes about a potential jailhouse rape. That doesn't help anyone's cause and shows the gross and abusive nature of the people commenting.
This case is bogus and will certainly be treated as such when it moves through the appeals process. It was completely corrupted by pre-trial, prejudicial publicity of the worst kind -- long before the case was heard, it became an urban myth that a young kid killed himself because his roommate bullied him and outted him and put his sexual exploits on the web. None of that was ever true. This case was about a disagreement between college roommates over a 3 week period - the first, who happened to be suicidal and gay, and the second, a careless 18 year old. Clementi was no alter boy himself - he texted racist remarks about his roommate that were at least as bad as the texts related to his sexuality. And more importantly, this situation spun out of control not because Clementi brought back a male to the room, but because he brought back a 30 year old internet predator who didn't even know his last name. You do not have the right to subject your roommate to a pattern of abusive sexiling in the middle of the night just because you are away from home for the first time and want to go nuts. And it is not "gay" behavior to troll the internet for mentally ill 18 year olds and then hookup with them in Freshman dorms teeming with 17 and 18 year olds. MB is not gay - he is something else and those who believe he is gay are mistaken about what it means to be gay. And Clementi's self-destructive behavior was a cry for help that never got answered. As for Ravi saying no to the sexiling - he had already abandoned the room on the weekends and felt peer pressure to submit - so he struck out with what he incorrectly deemed humor. And then he lied to college "police" officials to avoid discipline - not to avoid a criminal prosecution that should never have been brought. That's your crime of the century.
More importantly, it was Clementi's mother who drove him to text that she had rejected him, and she was quoted in the New Yorker article (showing her homophobic stripes) as saying that she was disappointed in him being gay because now he couldn't have a family and children. She and her husband showed a woeful lack of interest in his well-being by dropping him in a room with some other 18 year old and never telling that kid or his parents that her son was fragile AND incapable of starting of normal friendships - it was that discussion that she had with him that led to him telling her he was gay. And it never dawned on her that his desire to see tall bridges while depressed might be a cry for help.
Bad cases make bad law. These days, prosecutors all imagine themselves as the heroes on "Law and Order" creating new laws from laws that are perhaps too broadly drawn in the first instance. Another saying is "show me the law and I will show you the man." In New Jersey, it is still illegal to slurp your soup. Now it is illegal to delete your texts or alter them because someone might decide later that you have committed a crime. It doesn't matter what your motive is - the state has now appropriated your first amendment rights. As for practical jokes - any time the state wants to intervene, it will find some crime - trespass or invasion of privacy or whatever. I would have been concerned about Ravi if he'd followed his roommate around or put up pictures on a website. Instead, Ravi viewed a few seconds of his roommate kissing another man while both were clothed. His roommate was already out of the closet. He'd brought a much older man to the dorm in full view of everyone with the obvious intention of sex - given his roommate was left to roam the halls. There was no expctation of privacy for anyone - Ravi had the legal right to re-enter that room at will and tell MB to leave. And Clementi had the opportunity after he learned of his roommate's disdain for being sexiled, to move to the RA's spare bed - he chose instead to continue the sexiling that led to the problem in the first instance, and to bring back that vile creep. All that mattered to Clementi at that point was his physical needs - because he was completely, emotionally unhealthy - not because he was gay. A normal gay man would have recognized that there was a problem - but then a normal 18 year old gay boy at college is not bringing 30 year olds into the dorm.
alawyer-2456600 - A brilliant balanced view
Thank God, you found the reference point where the MOTHER was pointed as the SOURCE and CAUSE for Tyler to jump. I am seriously at doubt what the LGBT community is doing - all that hatred that spewed from them - in addressing such parental rejection (and pena;lizing them for bullying their children into changing both physical and psychological).
And on the day she read that statement in the court, I wanted to puke. She is the EVIL person not this dumb-ass kid.
Wow, great synopsis of the entire thing. Since the new age of instant everything in regard to communication everyone made their predermined minds up with no evidence of any of it.
Well put. The entire scenario was ripe for what transpired and to each of their own transgressions.
What gives? If I went out and committed suicide should my family go find 'somenone' to blame instead of taking it all into context. Hmm?
alawyer,
You nailed it. Unfortunately, here and now being an Asian legal immigrant is much less popular than being gay.
And one more thing. Being tolerant and being tolerast is 2 different things. These perverts insist that, by "virtue" of their perversion, they are special and sort of elite, and are entitled to special rights and privileges. Worse, they are supported by those who in the name of political correctness are systematically destroying the very fabric of the society. That is absolutely, completely wrong. Yes, they are entitled to believe in perversion and debauchery. However, we are likewise entitled to believe in the Scriptures, and particularly Leviticus 20:13.
In India it is quite common for men to hold hands and kiss, I used to work in a English second language school and often had to tell them it is not accepted as the norm here,
If Ravi had been a white male the story would have been different.
It's a shame that Ravi only got 30 days in prison. Though, he didn't make Tyler jump off the bridge(his parents reaction did that), Ravi deserves at least a year. Miss Ravi gonna have a good time in lockup with the "jersey white trash" and the "de la ghettoes" teaching him how to be "cellblock gurl"; she's sooooo pretty!!
Many people (white or non-white) who call for Ravi's deportation, should note that USA is the land of immigrants. Stop crying...These are comments filled with revenge, hatred for a person of color.
The white people who came and butchered the native Indians (native Americans -who are the true owners if this country) came in a Boat. Most Indians from South Asia came in a Jet. Indians are rich and value familes and contribute to society..unlike people who waste their lives with drugs, shooting, gangs etc.
What happens if in another 50 yrs Hispanics are majority in this country? Imagine that White-Caucasians and relax, USA is the land of immigrants
This guy needs to be in a real prison and serve the entire 30 days.
They should have made him leave our country. We have enough vile privacy invaders of our own let alone having outsiders act this way. I have a major issue with privacy violators. They are despicable low lifes who have no self esteem or ability to control their perverted curiosities. Their sole purpose is to create drama, tension and gossip or to violate the right of quiet enjoyment just to be a nuisance. Camera peeping creepy people like this make my skin crawl. Although I totally respect he legal system for the most part, I wish someone would have taken this guy aside and humiliated him to the nth degree.
White, Black, Brown, Whatever....this little POS never showed an ounce of remorse for invading the privacy of his fellow human being AND then lying about it to the cops afterward AND he had that stupid smirk on his face the whole time THAT's why everyone is calling for his head and NO other reason...peeps need to stop making this a racial issue cause it's not.....I hope he ROTS in the slammer and then gets deported!!!
I hope others learn from his foolish prank how serious the results can be. I just wonder how Ravi would like it if someone started bullying him because of his Indian nationality and making fun of him on Facebook. He probably wouldn't kill himself because an attack like this isn't that personal. However, people need to be aware of how a vulnerable young man who has many doubts about himself and rejections perhaps from friends and family can become suicidal.
I hope that people start shunning Ravi because who knows when he will turn his camera on them.
Release RAVI! Let Him GO!!
this trial was a farce!
Go blame the kids parents, for not giving the support the kid needed!
Ravi should have been sentenced to death.
Judge Glenn Berman - A particular POS.
Has this Ravi person ever expressed remorse (heart-felt) for what he did?
Deport him, no need to have this moron stay in this country, Federals should deport him after his sentence.
Yea, apparently he doesn't quite understand what America is all about. Send him back.
When you are a guest in another country, it generally is a good idea not to be a jerkwad, like he was.
What ever happened to the days when kids actually STUDIED in college?
Now it seems it is all about iPhoning your date-rapes and bullying your roommates.
No wonder these idiots can't get jobs.
WOULD YOU HIRE THIS GUY? I WOULDN'T!
Gross miscarriage of justice. Some kid with mental issues kills himself. We don't know why and then we have to find someone to blame because the "special needs' kid was part of a protected species.
He didn't throw the kid off the bridge, he didn't tell him to jump or even encourage him to do so. Maybe he was upset because he was gay or because his lover broke off the relationship.
When the facts don't fit your preconceptions, make up new ones.
Why not? Fox News does it all the time.
Read much?
Ravi: I hope your roommie is gay, and violent, and at least 6'5" tall. Rot in hell.
Oh yeah. Would someone sneak his roomie an iPhone so he can take videos too? 30 days in jail might not do it, but 30 days of videos of him on the net for eternity might get through to him!
I feel sorry for you.