Former Rutgers Student Dharun Ravi Released from Jail
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ABC/LOU ROCCO(NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.) — Former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi was released from jail on Tuesday after serving 20 days of his 30-day sentence for spying on his roommate Tyler Clementi’s gay tryst. Clementi committed suicide days later.
Ravi, 20, was let go early from the Middlesex County Jail because he had received a 10-day credit for good behavior.
After his conviction for bias intimidation, Judge Glenn Berman also sentenced Ravi to three years probation, ordered him to complete 300 hours of community service and attend counseling programs for cyber-bullying and alternative lifestyles.
Ravi must also pay a $10,000 assessment to the probation department in increments of $300 per month beginning on Aug. 1. The money will go to groups that support victims of bias crimes.
Ravi, who is not a U.S. citizen, also faced the possibility of being deported, but U.S. immigration officials said this week that they will not pursue deportation for the Indian native.
Prosecutors have been asking an appeals court for a longer sentence while Ravi is appealing his conviction.
“I do not believe he hated Tyler Clementi,” the judge told the court when Ravi was sentenced. “He had no reason to, but I do believe he acted out of colossal insensitivity.”
Berman berated Ravi for not apologizing for his actions.
“I heard this jury say, ‘guilty’ 288 times — 24 questions, 12 jurors. That’s the multiplication,” Berman said. “I haven’t heard you apologize once.”
Ravi was convicted of invasion of privacy, bias intimidation, witness tampering and hindering arrest, stemming from his role in activating the webcam to peek at Clementi’s date with a man in the dorm room on Sept. 19, 2010. Ravi was also convicted of encouraging others to spy during a second date, on Sept. 21, 2010, and intimidating Clementi for being gay.
On May 29, Ravi released an apology and statement to notify Berman that he would begin serving his 30-day sentence.
“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,” he wrote. “My behavior and action, 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.”
Clementi’s parents slammed Ravi’s apology for spying on Clementi’s gay date as “no apology at all, but a public relations piece.”
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