10/8/2010
New Jersey – Lawyers for one of the students who were arrested for charges of invasion of privacy said that she was innocent and has a bright future ahead of her.
The 18-year old Molly Wei, along with her friend Dharun Ravi, were held responsible for the suicide Tyler Clementi, a freshman at Rutger University.
The proximate cause for the teener’s suicide was the live broadcast of his sexual encounter with another male student in his dorm room. Ravi, who was Clementi’s roommate, left their dorm room when Clementi asked to have the room for the duration of the evening. Ravi then went to Wei’s room, and from there activated his webcam, all the time watching and broadcasting Clementi and his partner.
Several days after the said broadcast, Clementi jumped off a bridge. Clementi posted a goodbye message on his Facebook page, which read “Jumping off the gw bridge sorry.”
Wei’s lawyers said that she is “a wonderful, caring, and talented young woman with a bright future.” They also said that people have been maliciously attacking her character and have struck her deeply.
Investigators are looking at a probability of adding a hate crime charge on Ravi and Wei. On the other hand, the prosecutor said that he chooses to be accurate than add on charges needlessly.
