Dharun Ravi, the former Rutgers
University freshman accused of bullying Tyler Clementi to death, was
charged by a grand jury on Wednesday with committing a hate crime.
The 15-count indictment by New Jersey
prosecutors charges Ravi with bias intimidation, invasion of privacy,
witness and evidence tampering, and other charges, the AP reprorted.
Ravi's alleged accomplice Molly Wei has yet to be indicted. Both
students have since withdrawn from Rutgers.
Eighteen-year-old Clementi jumped off
the George Washington Bridge to his death in September after learning
that Ravi, his roommate, had secretly streamed live video of him
having sex with another man onto the Internet.
Ravi is also accused of attempting to
deceive prosecutors by destroying evidence of his participation,
including a Twitter feed in which he allegedly twice invited
followers to watch his roommate's sexual encounters on the Internet.
A day after Ravi's tweets, Clementi, a
gifted violinist, wrote on his Facebook page, “Jumping off the gw
bridge sorry.”
Clementi's parents, Joe and Jane
Clementi, called Ravi “cold” in a statement released after the
charges were announced.
“The grand jury indictment spells out
cold and calculated acts against our son Tyler by his former college
roommate,” the Clementis said. “If these facts are true, as they
appear to be, then it is important for our criminal justice system to
establish clear accountability under the law.”