The jury in the trial of former Rutgers student, Dharun Ravi, read their verdict this afternoon and found Ravi guilty of many chargers including hate crimes. Ravi was found guilty guilty of invasion of privacy and the hate crime of bias intimidation against his roommate, Tyler Clementi. Clementi committed suicide a few days after Ravi broadcasted a sexual encounter with Clementi and an older man on a web cam. Read more below.

Julie1205

The former Rutgers University student accused of using a webcam to spy on his roommate’s tryst with another man was found guilty of invasion of privacy and the hate crime of bias intimidation against his roommate.

Dharun Ravi, 20, sat expressionless as the guilty verdicts were read Friday in the Middlesex County, N.J. courtroom. He was found not guilty of some lesser counts.

His former roommate, Tyler Clementi, killed himself in September, 2010, by jumping off the George Washington Bridge after learning his encounter had been caught on camera, touching off a national debate on bullying.

Ravi’s attorneys acknowledged to the jury that the former college student acted in a thoughtless, immature manner, but denied he was motivated by hatred toward gays.

“He hasn’t lived long enough to have any experience with homosexuality or gays,” said attorney Steven Altman in closing arguments. “He doesn’t know anything about it. He just graduated high school.”

Prosecutors said that Ravi set up a webcam in his dorm room in September 2010 and captured Clementi kissing another man, then tweeted about it and excitedly tried to catch Clementi in the act again two days later. About a half-dozen students were believed to have seen the live video of the kissing.

Within days, Clementi realized he had been watched and leaped from the bridge after posting one last status update on Facebook: “Jumping off the gw bridge, sorry.”

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