New Details Emerge in Clementi Case

The New York Times reports that newly filed court papers in the case against Dharun Ravi offer complex portraits of both the accused and the roommate prosecutors say he drove to suicide.

Ravi, 19, a former Rutgers University student who is accused of posting a video of Tyler Clementi in an intimate encounter with another man, faces 15 charges, including invasion of privacy and bias intimidation.

The new documents, which were filed this week, paint Clementi as a self-described antisocial being who worried about his mother's negative reaction to the news that he was gay, while Ravi comes across as a young man fixated on his roommate's sexuality.

According to the article, "Both men seemed painfully aware of the awkwardness between them."

The documents include transcripts of Clementi's and Ravi's online chats as well as interviews with witnesses like Molly Wei, who is expected to testify for the prosecution.

The Times reports that in her discussions with investigators, Wei described Ravi "as a braggart and a habitual liar, who tried to mislead the police into thinking that the spying was unintentional."

The papers also reveal that before actually meeting Clementi, Ravi had learned of his future roommate's sexual orientation, which he discussed with friends and wrote about on Twitter.

As for Clementi, the Times article says that chats "that appear to be Mr. Clementi's do not portray a man fearful of having his sexual orientation disclosed. He played down Mr. Ravi's telling people and wrote that other students would know why he was bringing a man to his room." He also stated that he was out to his family and that only his mother had reacted negatively.

In regard to his antisocial tendencies, Clementi wrote, "I would die if I was forced to always have people around me."

Read the full article here.